Explore Contextual Information in 'Storm on the Island' by Seamus Heaney

In this worksheet, students will explore contextual information in the poem 'Storm on the Island' by Seamus Heaney. 

For this activity, you will need your Power and Conflict  poetry anthology to refer to the poem. 

If you also have some paper and a pen, that would be great to make notes as you go along!

Seamus Heaney was a Northern Irish poet who won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1995 and died in 2013.  He often wrote about themes like childhood, nature and his homeland.  'Storm on the Island' was published in 1966.

The poem is written in the form of one nineteen-line stanza

The speakers in the poem are the islanders who have prepared their homes for a storm -  or at least they think they have!

 However, the storm becomes much more powerful than they expect and causes damage to their properties, and the islanders start to feel scared and helpless.

In the following questions, you will be asked about contextual features in this poem.

So, when you're ready, let's begin.