Storm on the Island Flashcards
(13 cards)
1
Q
Who is Storm on the Island written by?
A
Seamus Heaney
2
Q
What is the structure of Storm on the Island?
A
- Unpredictable rhythm and rhyme scheme
- Structural change(volta)
- Enjambment
3
Q
What does the unpredictable rhyme scheme show?
A
- No consistent rhyme scheme reflects how order cannot be enforced upon nature and it is more powerful than humans
- Some half rhyme to show that nature only allows for partial organisation
4
Q
What does the structural change show?
A
- The poet moves from creating images of safety, to danger and destruction
- Volta shown by “but no” calm before the storm
5
Q
What does the enjambment show?
A
- Lines flowing seamlessly without punctuation in one stanza
- Creates a sense of continuity and fluidity - mirros the relentless nature of the storm
- Lack of punctuation contributes to poem’s sense of urgency and intensity - chaos and unpredictability of the natural world
6
Q
What are the themes of Storm on the Island?
A
- Power struggle between humanity and nature
- Fear and vulnerability
- Isolation and resilience
7
Q
How is the theme of power struggle between humanity and nature explored?
A
- Depicts the storm as a formidable force that threatens to overwhelm island
- Conflict between human desire for control and uncontrollable forces of nature
8
Q
How is the theme of fear and vulnerability explored?
A
- Experienced by the islanders as they confront the storm
9
Q
“We are prepared: we build our houses squat”
A
- Strong opening, declarative sentence emphasises the confidence and security of Islanders
- Use of caesura reinforces speaker’s certainty - safely protected/barricaded in their homes
10
Q
“You can listen to the thing you fear forgetting that it pummels your house too”
A
- Personifies nature making it seem like it intends to attack the island
- Suggests the reader is as vulnerable - direct address
- Allows the reader to feel more connected to the poem
- Human vulnerability
11
Q
“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear”
A
- Paradox “huge nothing” - complexity of human fears
- Suggests that fear can be irrational, arising from absence rather than presence
-Reinforces unpredictability of power of nature
12
Q
“The very widows spits like a tame cat turned savage”
A
- Simile - oxymoronic as a tame cat shouldn’t be agressive
- Storm is wild and uncontrollable - something which seems so innocent can be deadly
13
Q
What is the context for this poem?
A
- Northern Irish poet
- Catholic
- His early peoms focused on ancestry, identity and nature, nature as a metaphor for human nature
