Storm on the Island (of Ireland) Flashcards
(17 cards)
We are prepared : we build our houses squat/ Sink walls in rock
We
- sense of community
- speaking symbolically for catholics
squat - flat/compressed/diminished by weather/troubles
Sink walls in rock - catholics have strong connection to the land.
This wizened earth has never troubled us/ With hay
blows full / Blast:
Plosive
Enjambment
Breaks Iambic pentameter
= sense of force and disruption
no natural shelter
[sea] Exploding comfortably
Oxymoron = fear and safety or used to the sea’s power (which then starts to attack the island).
spits like a tame cat/ Turned savage
wind dives….. strafes invsibly
We are bombarded by the empty air
Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear
Final word is fear - contrasts with ‘we are prepared’ - end with sense of distress and foreboding
‘huge nothing’ interpretations
1 - wind and emptiness
2 - god is not real
3 - catholics fear becoming nothing if subsumed by protestants
4 protestants fear being subsumed by catholics
5 become nothing - destructive force of terrors OR the weather
Opening
We are prepared; we build our houses squat/ Sink walls in rock
Are we bovvered?
This wizened earth has never troubled us
Explosions (2)
blows full/ Blast
Exploding comfortably
Evil pet
spits like a tame cat/Turned savage
Wind x 2
wind dives….. strafes invsibly
We are bombarded by the empty air
Ending
Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear
Form
Dramatic monologue in blank verse - iambic pentameter - reflecting relentless attack of the story; broken occassionally with violence of storm ‘blows full/Blast’
Structure
One short stanza - like the ‘squat’ houses. Cramped, and flattened.
Get examples of enjambment and caesura too.
