Storm on the Island Analysis

Don't look at us with that blank expression. Blank verse isn't all that complicated once you know what's going on. A blank verse poem, like this one, is written in regular iambic pentameter, meanin...

Can we get a "tragic chorus" up in here? We're not sure if that's what Heaney meant when he wrote that line, but we do know that there isn't one distinct speaker in this poem. The first word of the...

Put away your wayfarer sunglasses. This is not that kind of island. But, as the title suggests, this poem does take place on an island. The island, we slowly find out, is not a tropical paradise, b...

The blank verse we discussed in "Form and Meter" does not, by any means, indicate that this poem is without any rhythm or cool sound effects. Quite the opposite, really. The iambic pentameter gives...

You can relax a bit. Heaney isn't beating around the bush with this title. It's fairly straightforward. He lends us a helping hand by giving us a sneak peek of the action in the poem (a storm) and...

While it's fair to say that there are many Seamus Heaney poems that celebrate nature (check out "Blackberry Picking" and "Digging" for just two), it would be a mistake to say that they did so in a...

While this is a poem rich with imagery and the complicated tension between the people on the island and Mother Nature, there isn't too much else to follow. If you have a dictionary nearby to l...

Heaney grew up on a fifty-acre farm called Mossbawn. No wonder he loves, or fears, er… relates to nature. (Source.)Did you like this poem? You're not alone. In 2008, Heaney was responsible for tw...

While getting stranded in a small house on an island that's being pummeled by a storm could be romantic, Heaney never goes there. It's all chill; no thrill.