Storm on the Island & Bayonet Charge

This lesson pairs two poems that explore the sudden, overwhelming experience of being caught in a violent situation. Heaney's Storm on the Island uses a literal storm as a metaphor for political conflict, while Hughes's Bayonet Charge plunges the reader into the terrifying, disorienting experience of a soldier going over the top. Both poems explore how individuals respond when confronted by forces beyond their control.

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Storm on the Island — Seamus Heaney (1966)

Context

Fact	Detail
Poet	Seamus Heaney (1939–2013)
Background	Northern Irish, grew up in a Catholic farming community in County Derry
Collection	Death of a Naturalist (1966)
Political context	The poem was written shortly before the Troubles (1968–1998), the violent conflict in Northern Ireland
Hidden message	The first eight letters of "Stormont" (the Northern Irish Parliament) are hidden in "Storm on the Island"
Form	Blank verse, single stanza

Heaney grew up in Northern Ireland during a period of sectarian tension between the Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist communities. While Storm on the Island appears on the surface to be about a literal storm, many critics read it as an extended metaphor for the political violence of the Troubles. The hidden word "Stormont" (the seat of Northern Irish government) in the title supports this reading.

Examiner's tip: You can discuss both the literal and metaphorical readings — a good essay acknowledges the poem's ambiguity. The storm is both a real weather event and a symbol of political/military conflict.

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Content Summary

An island community describes how they have prepared for storms. Their houses are built strong, they have no trees that could be blown down, and there are no crops to lose. But when the storm arrives, its sheer force — especially the "huge nothing" of the wind — leaves them afraid. Despite all their preparations, the storm is terrifying because it is an invisible, intangible enemy.

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Key Quotes

Quote	Technique	Analysis
"We are prepared: we build our houses squat"	Collective pronoun / declarative	"We" establishes community solidarity. The short declarative sounds confident — but this confidence will be undermined.
"Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate"	Concrete nouns / listing	Practical, solid language — walls, rock, slate. The community is grounded and resilient.
"There are no trees, no natural shelter"	Negation	The repetition of "no" removes comfort — the landscape is barren and exposed.
"the wizened earth has never troubled us"	Personification	The earth is "wizened" (old, weathered) — it has endured. But "never troubled" will prove ironic.
"Blast: you know what I mean"	Caesura / direct address	"Blast" has military connotations (explosion). The direct address ("you know what I mean") creates intimacy and implies shared experience — the reader understands this kind of fear.
"spits like a tame cat / Turned savage"	Simile	The sea transforms from something familiar and safe into something wild and dangerous. The domestic "tame cat" turning "savage" suggests sudden, shocking violence.
"We just sit tight while wind dives / And strafes invisibly"	Military language	"Dives" and "strafes" are aerial combat terms — the wind attacks like a fighter plane. This is the clearest link to the Troubles allegory.
"It is a huge nothing that we fear"	Paradox / abstract noun	The most important line. The enemy is invisible, intangible — "a huge nothing." Fear of the unknown is the most paralysing fear of all. In political terms, living under the threat of violence is itself a form of suffering.

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Language Analysis

Military register: Words like "blast," "bombarded," "strafes," "dives" create a semantic field of warfare within a poem ostensibly about weather. This dual register is key to the allegorical reading.

Conversational tone: The direct address ("you know what I mean"), the collective "we," and the conversational rhythm create a sense of community storytelling — this is a shared experience passed down through generations.

The paradox of preparedness: The community does everything right — strong houses, no vulnerable trees — yet they are still afraid. The poem argues that some threats cannot be prepared for.

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Form and Structure

Feature	Detail	Effect
Blank verse	Unrhymed iambic pentameter	Creates a natural, conversational tone — as if the speaker is simply talking
Single stanza	19 lines, no breaks	The unbroken form mirrors the relentless, uninterrupted force of the storm
Volta	"But no:" (line 14)	The turn acknowledges that preparations are insufficient — fear takes over
Enjambment	Throughout	The lines flow into each other like the wind itself — unstoppable
Ending	"It is a huge nothing that we fear"	The poem ends on an abstract, unsettling note — there is no resolution

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Bayonet Charge — Ted Hughes (1957)

Context

Fact	Detail
Poet	Ted Hughes (1930–1998)
Background	Hughes's father survived Gallipoli (WWI); Hughes himself served in the RAF but never saw combat
Collection	The Hawk in the Rain (1957)
Influence	Hughes was deeply influenced by his father's war stories and by the work of Wilfred Owen
Form	Three stanzas, free verse with irregular line lengths

Hughes did not fight in war himself, but the trauma of his father's generation — survivors of the First World War — profoundly shaped his poetry. Bayonet Charge imagines a single soldier going "over the top" in a WWI assault. Unlike Tennyson's collective heroism, Hughes focuses on one terrified individual whose patriotic ideals disintegrate in the face of real violence.

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Content Summary

A soldier suddenly finds himself running across no man's land with a bayonet, under heavy fire. In the first stanza, he runs on instinct. In the second, he stops, paralysed, as his mind catches up and he questions why he is there — patriotism, honour, and dignity suddenly seem meaningless. In the third stanza, instinct takes over again and he charges forward, all humanity stripped away.

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Key Quotes

Quote	Technique	Analysis
"Suddenly he awoke and was running"	In medias res / verb choice	The poem plunges straight into action — "Suddenly" is disorienting. "Awoke" suggests the soldier has been in a dreamlike state; reality hits like a shock.
"raw-seamed hot khaki"	Tactile imagery	The uniform is uncomfortable, chafing — physical discomfort grounds the reader in the soldier's body.
"The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye"	Irony	The idealistic emotion that motivated him to enlist is now irrelevant. "Brimmed" suggests it was always fragile.
"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera"	Bathos / listing	The grand abstractions that justify war are reduced to "etcetera" — a dismissive, devastating word that strips them of all meaning.
"In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations"	Metaphor	"Cold clockwork" suggests war is a mechanical, indifferent process. Soldiers are cogs in a machine that does not care about them.
"a yellow hare that rolled like a flame"	Simile / symbolism	The hare represents nature, innocence, and vulnerability — everything war destroys. "Rolled like a flame" suggests both agony and the natural world consumed by war.
"His terror's touchy dynamite"	Metaphor / alliteration	His fear is explosive and unstable — "touchy" suggests it could detonate at any moment. The plosive 't' sounds reinforce the tension.
"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera / Dropped like luxuries"	Simile	Ideals are "luxuries" — unnecessary extras that cannot survive the reality of combat.

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Language Analysis