Storm on the Island
Seamus Heaney * Track #5 On Death Of A Naturalist
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Storm on the Island by Seamus Heaney
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Seamus HeaneyAbout
The poem was first published in the collection Death of a Naturalist in 1966.
The title Storm on the Island is blunt and explicit. Despite the lack of a named location, the ‘Storm’ in the title is code for Stormont, the Northern Island seat of Government. (Note the first eight letters of the title...
Storm on the Island Annotated
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
This wizened earth has never troubled us
With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks
Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees
Which might prove company when it blows full
Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches
Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
So that you listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.
But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
You might think that the sea is company,
Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives
And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo,
We are bombarded with the empty air.
Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.
Storm on the Island Q&A
Who wrote Storm on the Island's ?
Storm on the Island was written by Seamus Heaney.