Hello everyone.

Welcome to a lesson today on understanding the poem, "Storm on the Island." I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

For today's lesson you are going to need your copy of the AQA Power and Conflict anthology.

So make sure you've got your anthology before you continue with this lesson.

Pause the video and go and grab your anthology.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain how Heaney presents the power of nature and The Troubles of Northern Ireland in "Storm on the Island." Our three key words for today's lesson are extended metaphor.

An extended metaphor is a metaphor that extends over the course of several lines.

Civil.

Civil means relating to citizens of the same country.

And unrest.

Unrest is a state of disturbance involving public disorder.

Pause the video and take a note of those keywords now.

These keywords are going to be very important in unlocking the meaning of today's poem.

Let's have a look at our learning cycles then.

In the first learning cycle we'll be forming our own interpretations of "Storm on the Island." So we're going to read it with no expectations and no prior knowledge.

This will help us really immerse ourselves in this poem and enjoy it in the way that Heaney intended us to.

In the second learning cycle we'll then find out a little bit about what may have inspired Heaney to write this poem.

So let's start off with reading "Storm on the Island" and forming our own interpretations.

So based on the title, what can you predict about the poem, "Storm on the Island?" Pause the video and discuss that question now.

A great way to start when you're presented with any new poem is to make predictions and we make the best predictions by really zooming into the language of the title.

So let's look at "Storm on the Island." What do we think of when we hear that title? This poem may focus heavily on nature because of the word storm.

Storm is a type of natural disaster.

This poem may describe a remote place because it's a storm on an island.

So maybe this small island could be helpless in the face of nature.

"Storm on the Island," it doesn't actually name a particular storm.

So perhaps this poem might refer to the general impact of all natural disasters, not one particular historical natural disaster.

And another prediction that I had was that maybe this poem will explore the conflict between nature and people since storms can be very destructive.

So there are just four predictions that I had based in this poem.

You may have many more and much different predictions to me, and that is absolutely okay.

Predictions are personal and predictions are to help us understand the poem a bit better.

Now let's take a look at this piece of information.

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet who wrote a lot about nature and his homeland, and this picture is of the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland, which are actually believed to be the setting for "Storm on the Island." It's a very beautiful place.

So now you know a little bit about Seamus Heaney and the Aran Islands, I want you to predict one more thing about this poem.

So pause the video and discuss what else can you predict about this poem now.

Perhaps this poem might talk about the beauty of nature because the Aran Islands seems to be a beautiful place.

Perhaps this poem might talk a little bit about Irish culture since these islands are in Ireland.

Well, we'll soon find out when we read the poem.

So open your anthology now and read the poem, "Storm on the Island." I hope you enjoy it.

I hope you've enjoyed reading that poem.

Don't worry if you don't understand what's happening on your first read.

We'll dig deeper into each layer of the poem as the lesson goes on.

First question I want you to discuss is what do you think's happening in this poem? So pause the video and discuss that now.

On my first read of the poem, I first noticed the description of a storm, which would make sense considering the poem is called "Storm on the Island." Now I want you to discuss which images stand out to you in this poem.

Pause the video and discuss.

Again, to me, the sheer power and dominance of nature and the way in which the storm attacks, that really does stand out to me from this poem.

The last question I want you to discuss is what are the three standout words from the poem for you and why did you choose them? Pause the video and discuss your three standout words now.

Off you go.

Two words that really stood out to me in that poem were pummels and savage because again, they really give me a picture of how vicious this storm is.

Let's dig deeper into the way in which Seamus Heaney describes nature because no doubt that probably stood out to you.

So discuss now, what do you notice about the way Seamus Heaney describes nature in the poem, "Storm on the Island?" Pause the video and discuss.

Off you go.

All of these words are used by Seamus Heaney to describe the storm.

He says, pummels, exploding, bombarded, savage, strafes and salvo.

Seamus Heaney thus describes nature as extremely powerful and destructive, even drawing upon military metaphors to describe the brutality of the wind.

Now I want you to pick one of the words above and conduct single word analysis.

So discuss what the connotations of one of those words are and what it makes you think, feel and imagine.

Pause the video and conduct some single word analysis now.

Off you go.

Here are some ideas.

So I chose the word salvo.

This word evokes images of heavy artillery fire.

The use of sibilance in the overall line replicates artillery hissing.

The word salvo forms a semantic field of war with strafes and bombarded.

And perhaps Heaney chose this word to portray the sheer power of nature over humans and nature's inability to be predicted or controlled.

Now I want to check your understanding of what we've discussed so far.

Heaney uses what kind of imagery to describe nature in the poem? Does he use celestial imagery, military imagery, or robotic imagery? Pause the video and answer that question now.

Off you go.

Well done if you said Heaney uses military imagery to describe nature in the poem.

Remember, he uses words such as bombarded, strafes and salvo, which all relate to war.

And he uses those perhaps to show the power of nature over humans and the destructive impacts of nature too.

The next question is, the word pummels suggests? Does it suggest the soothing presence of nature, the sadness of nature, or the brutality of nature? Pause the video and answer that question.

Well done if you said the word pummels suggests the brutality of nature.

Pummels refers to something being broken down and beaten, and if the storm is able to pummelled, then the storm must indeed be brutal.

The storm is the opposite of soothing in this poem.

It has the ability to scare and destroy.

Now I want you to answer this question.

How does Seamus Heaney present the power of nature in "Storm on the Island?" Here's your checklist for your paragraph.

You need to start with a topic sentence, include a quote, make an inference, mention the effect of a literary device, use tentative language and discuss relevant contextual links.

Here are some sentence starters.

In "Storm on the Island" nature is presented as, when.

This has connotations of.

This evokes ideas of.

The use of, reflects.

And perhaps Heaney.

So use what we've talked about so far, as well as the brilliant single word analysis you've done to help you write this paragraph.

Pause the video and get writing.

Excellent effort there everyone.

Here is a snippet of Andeep's paragraph where he has tried to work on his single word analysis and inference skills.

He said, "The word savage evokes feelings of aggression, making the wind seem brutal." Let's dig deeper into Andeep's single word analysis.

How could his single word analysis be improved? Pause the video and reflect on that question now.

Andeep's analysis of the word savage is not quite tied to the exact connotations of the word savage.

For example, you could replace savage with bombardment and his response would still make sense.

So what are the exact connotations of the word savage? Pause the video and reflect on that question now.

So let's take a look at the exact connotations of the word savage.

Savage has connotations of being animalistic, uncontrolled, and wild.

So here is how Andeep could use that to improve his single word analysis.

He's now written, "The word savage evokes an image of a wild animal, making the wind seem unrestrained and implacable in its ferocity." Now, that is a much better single word analysis from Andeep.

So check your paragraph now to ensure that your single word analysis aptly matches the connotations of the words you have written about.

Pause the video and check your single word analysis now.

Remember, the more single word analysis you do, the better you'll get at it.

Now let's move on to considering the contextual meaning of "Storm on the Island." In your additional materials, there is some information about The Troubles.

This will be useful in helping you understand one possible interpretation of the poem.

So I want you to read that information that's in your additional material, and I then want you to discuss how might Seamus Heaney have been impacted by these events? Pause the video and complete those tasks now.

You may have considered that Seamus Heaney grew up in Northern Ireland, and that is where The Troubles, this conflict, this conflict and violence was occurring.

So perhaps Seamus Heaney's childhood was influenced and affected by violence in Northern Ireland, and that may have had a big impact on him.

We can now look at the title again through the lens of this contextual information.

So how does the title now almost take on different meaning based on what we've learned about The Troubles? Well Stormont is the name of the political buildings in Northern Ireland, and we can see that Stormont actually is spelled out in this title.

So perhaps this poem has a political message.

Also, the word island is a homophone of the country Ireland.

So perhaps Heaney may have been alluding to The Troubles of Northern Ireland when he decided to call his poem "Storm on the Island." The storm could be a metaphor for the political storm that raged across Ireland, also known as The Troubles.

And the storm signifies the violence and brutality of the civil unrest during Northern Ireland at this time.

Just as the storm is powerful and brutal and destructive, so was the violence that ensued from The Troubles.

Let's check your understanding of what we've now talked about.

The Troubles refers to a longstanding conflict between Protestants, unionists, and Catholics, nationalists in Northern Ireland, Britain and Ireland, or Britain, Scotland and Ireland? Pause the video and answer that question.

The Troubles refers to a longstanding conflict between Protestants who are also known as unionists and Catholics, also known as nationalists in Northern Ireland.

So there were two main groups involved in this conflict.

The storm in the title of the poem can be read as a metaphor for the biggest natural disaster Ireland had faced, a metaphor for the political storm that raged in Northern Ireland, or a metaphor for Heaney's familial conflict in the 1960s? Pause the video and answer that question.

The storm in the title of the poem can be read as a metaphor for the political storm that raged in Northern Ireland.

And that political storm was the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics over Northern Ireland being a part of the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland remaining as parts of the united Ireland.

And during this conflict, there was a lot of violence, a lot of brutality, and that could be why Heaney compares it to a storm.

Now, I want you to summarise using the table below what The Troubles were.

So you need to make sure you include who or what was included in The Troubles, what happened during The Troubles, when it occurred, where it occurred, and how it occurred.

Pause the video and complete your summary of The Troubles now.

Let's go through what you may have said.

So who was involved in The Troubles? The Protestants, unionists, and Catholics, nationalists were involved in The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

What did each party do? The Protestants wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK, whereas the Catholics wanted a united Ireland.

When? This occurred in the 1960s to 1998.

It occurred for 30 years, which is a very, very long time.

And indeed it may have impacted Heaney's childhood and upbringing in Northern Ireland.

Where did it occur? It occurred in Northern Ireland where Seamus Heaney grew up.

And how did it occur? This conflict occurred through violence and civil unrest, and in total there are around 3,500 deaths as a result of The Troubles.

So it was a huge tragedy.

I now want you to discuss how does Heaney reference The Troubles in his poem? So in your discussion, I want you to find three examples of how you think the poem could relate to The Troubles, and I want you to explain how each example you found could relate to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

So pause the video and complete that task of linking the poem to the contextual information now.

Off you go.

Let's go through some ideas.

Firstly, the military imagery echoes the conflict in Northern Ireland, which suggests the storm is an extended metaphor for violence that ensued during The Troubles of 1960 to 1998.

The sea, trees and wind are not on the speaker's side in the poem.

This could symbolise how he feels disconnected from his environment as Irish culture was uprooted and replaced with English culture throughout this conflict.

And the use of the collective pronoun, we suggests that Heaney is talking about a community, perhaps the Irish nationalists who sought to protect and reclaim their land.

Well done on any other quotes and ideas that you found in the poem that could link to The Troubles.

It's really important to be able to find appropriate evidence from the poem that could link to our contextual information.

This will really help us when we begin to write our essays about these poems. Here's what we've learned today.

"Storm on the Island" can be read as a poem about the power of nature on the Aran Islands.

Heaney may have been influenced by the conflicts between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

"Storm on the Island" was published in 1996 when the IRA were carrying out military operations in Northern Ireland.

The storm can be read as an extended metaphor for The Troubles.

And The Troubles refers to a violent 30-year civil conflict in Ireland, which led to around 3,500 deaths.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope to see you in another one very soon.