storm on the island

“we are prepared:”

• links to themes: WAR AND CONFLICT

• Caesura forces the reader to pause in the comfort and security of this statement

• Plural first person pronoun "we" connotes a tight-knit community

“wizened earth”

• links to themes: POWER OF NATURE

• Connotes the prolocutor's respect for nature's power

“blows full Blast: you know what I mean”

• links to themes: WAR AND CONFLICT

• Plosives enhance an atmosphere of violence and aggression, suggesting nature is attacking the island

  • Plosives also resemble bullets, linking to The Troubles (Irish Civil War)

• Caesura undermines the impacts of the violent plosives

• Heaney relies heavily on a conversational tone and colloquial locution to enhance the intimacy of the poem

• This line is a volta

  • Heaney initially creates an atmosphere of security and comfort, but shatters this to enhance the sense of loneliness and fear

“tragic chorus”

• links to themes: WAR AND CONFLICT

• Continuity in the theme of community vs isolation in natural disasters

“hits … spits”

• links to themes: POWER OF NATURE

• Internal rhyme enhances emphasis, calling to the significance of nature's power

“savage … strafes … salvo”

• links to themes: POWER OF NATURE, WAR AND CONFLICT, OPPRESSION AND INEQUALITY

• Military metaphor personifies the weather's attack

  • The weather acts as an extended allegory for the Troubles and the damage it created

AO3

• written in 1966

• title is polysemic - eludes to both a natural storm and the conflict during The Troubles (1968-1998)

structure

written in free verse