Seamus Heaney’s Storm on the Island and Walt Whitman’s Patrolling

Seamus Heaney’s Storm on the Island and Walt Whitman’s Patrolling

Barnegat which were written in 1966 and 1856 respectively are two

classical poems describing vividly

How the poems I have studied explored nature and its effect.

Seamus Heaney’s Storm on the Island and Walt Whitman’s Patrolling

Barnegat which were written in 1966 and 1856 respectively are two

classical poems describing vividly the horror and insecurity

experienced by human’s during a wild storm. Storm on the Island and

Patrolling Barnegat have many similarities and differences, the

similarities reside around each writer’s description of a storm but

the differences are mainly due to the writer’s on personal attitude

and approach to a storm and how they apply it to their writing.

At the beginning of Heaney’s Storm on the Island he clearly highlights

that they have prepared for a storm

“We are prepared; we build our houses squat”,

Heaney also makes it clear that there is no company or shelter on the

island

“Nor are there trees that might prove company when it blows full

blast”.

Throughout the poem Heaney is describing the elements that have to be

faced during a storm, he describes the wind, the sea and the fear they

produce. In contrast to Heaney, Whitman begins his poem with a prompt

and vivid description of the storm and his dramatic account of a storm

continues throughout the poem.

Whitman’s portrayal of the storm is somewhat different to that of

Heaney as it is more sophisticated and complex,

“Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering”.

The attitude of each poet towards the poem plays a prominent role in

the style and rhythm of each poem. In brief it is quite clear that

Heaney’s attitude to a ...

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...ed the people

experiencing it. My preference would have to be Patrolling Barnegat as

I feel I was more engaged in the reading of it than I was in the

reading of Storm on the Island and the way Whitman described the

various components of a storm really impressed more so than anything

else.

On a final note I would like to acknowledge that these two poems I

have been comparing are non-fiction but I do realise that storms do

occur and their consequences can be catastrophic to say the least and

you have to look no further than the recent hurricane disaster in New

Orleans were over one thousand people lost their lives to the

devastation caused by nature and that thousands of peoples lives have

been permanently affected by this. We all should learn a valuable

lesson from this disaster and in future hopefully this tragedy will

not have to be experienced again.