‘Storm on the Island’, by Seamus Heaney Lesson plan Introduction What is the most difficult weather you have ever endured? Think about the coldest or hottest temperature, perhaps a flood or a drought. Have you ever had to endure a powerful storm, or even a hurricane? Can you think of some examples of people adapting their buildings or lifestyle in anticipation of difficult weather? For example, in certain neighbourhoods the houses are built on stilts because the area frequently floods. Development 1) Vocabulary matching – Students complete the word match activity below. 2) Reading the poem – Distribute the poem (available below with footnotes, and in a separate PDF without footnotes). Students read it individually, then aloud as a class several times. Do not yet tell students the title of the poem. Tell them that the title will be revealed later. For now they should think about what the title could be. 3) Understanding the poem – Ask students the following questions, having them cite line(s) of the poem to justify their answers: -­‐ Where is the speaker? -­‐ What are they ‘prepared’ for? -­‐ What is the land unsuitable for? How is this beneficial to them at the present moment? -­‐ What natural features are absent from the land? -­‐ In what sense does the speaker feel alone? -­‐ What word does the speaker repeat? -­‐ What is the thing they ‘fear’? 4) Tense – What tense is the poem written in: past, present, or future? Why does Heaney write in the present tense? Would the poem be more or less effective if it were written in the past tense? 5) Enjambment – Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. In this poem, Heaney uses enjambment effectively. Look, for example, at the enjambment in lines 6-­‐7. What is the effect of having the word ‘Blast’ begin on a new line? Where in the poem does Heaney achieve a similar effect? 6) Title – What do you think the title of the poem could be? © Education Umbrella, 2016 The real title of the poem is one of the titles below. Choose which you think is best: a) Storm on the Island b) A Storm on the Island c) The Storm on the Island d) Storms on the Island Explain your choice. The correct answer is a. Why do you think Heaney omits an article (‘a’ or ‘the’)? 7) Write about it – Choose one of the essay questions below and write a 500-­‐word response to it. a) To what extent is ‘Storm on the Island’ a religious poem? b) In ‘Storm on the Island’, to what extent does Heaney present nature as a powerful being? c) To what extent do the characters in ‘Storm on the Island’ feel part of nature? © Education Umbrella, 2016 Word match Match a word on the left with an appropriate word on the right. After your teacher has given you the right answers, try to write a sentence with each pair of words, keeping them together. houses blast full cat sink shelter tame walls exploding dives natural air empty squat wind comfortably © Education Umbrella, 2016 We are prepared: we build our houses squat, Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate. The wizened1 earth had never troubled us With hay, so as you can see, there are no stacks2 Or stooks3 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 chorus in a gale So that you can 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 strafes4 invisibly. Space is a salvo5. We are bombarded by the empty air. Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear. 1 dried up, shriveled 2 haystacks 3 a group of sheaves of grain stood on end in a field 4 attack repeatedly with bombs or machine-­‐gun fire from low-­‐flying aircraft 5 a number of weapons released from one or more aircraft in quick succession © Education Umbrella, 2016