Seamus Heaney's Storm on the Island compared... similar in many ways, yet there are also stark contrasts. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is the subject matter. Both poems are written from a personal point of view about the storm. Heaney describes the storm from inside a building for which he is prepared: "We build our squat houses." One gets the impression that the storm according to Heaney is not a rare event and that he is writing about many similar storms. The title does not use articles and writes in the present tense. Whitman, however, speaks as if he were actually in the storm, almost participating. The reader realizes this as Whitman asks the question “is this a wreck?” readers will then be able to understand that the poet is experiencing the incident he is describing. Both Heaney and Whitman associate storm with military terms. The title “Patrolling Barnegat” is self-explanatory; leading the reader to believe that the poem is about a military exercise. This might be considered an odd choice of title for a poem about such a wild and frenetic experience, very different from a military operation. 'Storm on the Island' unconsciously links the storm to a war by using indirectly related words such as "bombed". 'Patrolling Barnegat' is a sonnet, a poem of 14 lines, usually associated with love. It is therefore strange that Whitman uses this form of poetry to describe such an intense and wild experience, perhaps this is his perception of love. The lack of rhyming couplets and the use of half-rhymes at the end of each line "running/murmuring/ringing" encourages the reader to feel carried away, much like a storm itself. Otherwise, "Storm on the Island" is in free verse and has no orrhythmic rhyme. It uses the enjambment “spits like a tamed/gone feral cat” and reads continuously a bit like a story or conversation. The idea that Seamus Heaney is actually speaking to his audience is reinforced

Topic > Seamus Heaney's Storm on the Island compared... similar in many ways, yet there are also stark contrasts. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is the subject matter. Both poems are written from a personal point of view about the storm. Heaney describes the storm from inside a building for which he is prepared: "We build our squat houses." One gets the impression that the storm according to Heaney is not a rare event and that he is writing about many similar storms. The title does not use articles and writes in the present tense. Whitman, however, speaks as if he were actually in the storm, almost participating. The reader realizes this as Whitman asks the question “is this a wreck?” readers will then be able to understand that the poet is experiencing the incident he is describing. Both Heaney and Whitman associate storm with military terms. The title “Patrolling Barnegat” is self-explanatory; leading the reader to believe that the poem is about a military exercise. This might be considered an odd choice of title for a poem about such a wild and frenetic experience, very different from a military operation. 'Storm on the Island' unconsciously links the storm to a war by using indirectly related words such as "bombed". 'Patrolling Barnegat' is a sonnet, a poem of 14 lines, usually associated with love. It is therefore strange that Whitman uses this form of poetry to describe such an intense and wild experience, perhaps this is his perception of love. The lack of rhyming couplets and the use of half-rhymes at the end of each line "running/murmuring/ringing" encourages the reader to feel carried away, much like a storm itself. Otherwise, "Storm on the Island" is in free verse and has no orrhythmic rhyme. It uses the enjambment “spits like a tamed/gone feral cat” and reads continuously a bit like a story or conversation. The idea that Seamus Heaney is actually speaking to his audience is reinforced