Imtiaz Dharker

1. Storm on the Island
The poem “Storm on the Island” was written by Seamus Heaney
and is about a man who is on a house during a storm and is
expressing the emotions the feels during storm. This poem has
many different metaphorical meanings as well. In this piece I will
be analysing this poem and showing some of the meanings behind
it.
The author (Seamus Heaney) was born in Ireland in 1939 and was
the oldest child of 9. He grew up on a farm and most of his poems
are on the country side. He spent most of his life teaching poetry
at famous universities. He died in 2013.
A lot of the language in this poem represents the loneliness the
man is feeling; the poem talks a lot about the subject of being
solitary. An example of this is when he says “Nor are there trees
which may provide company.” Perhaps the trees are a metaphor
for the people as there are no others on the island in his story
despite the fact that when he referred to building the cabin he said
that “we built” this could refer to there being others on the island
who have died. He is the only survivor. The storm could reflect his
experiences and the house his emotions, his experiences hammer
away at his feelings causing them to strain.
In the poem there is also a lot of use of sibilance. The use of s
sounds can relate to the sound of the wind in the storm but also
to the build-up of tension and fear causing the reader to view the
storm as something dangerous. A few examples of sibilance include
“sink” “slate” “stacks” “shelter” “spits” and “strange” Another
structure technique widely used is juxtaposition, he uses this to
make the reader confused about what he is saying so they can
think about it, an example of this is “exploding comfortably”
The overall theme of this poem is hard to judge, on one hand it’s
about weather linking it to “Exposure” by Wilfrid Owen but in the
metaphorical sense it’s about feelings, regret and the past liking it
to poems like “War Photographer”