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Seamus Heaney’s “Storm on the Island” · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Friday, October 9th, 2026.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Seamus Haney.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's called Storm on the Island.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you are a subscriber and listened to yesterday's episode,
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  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned that here in northwest Florida,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are preparing for landfall today of a category two or three hurricane.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so storms have been on my mind lately,
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  SPEAKER_00: unlike Dunbar's yesterday that sort of revels in the approach of a storm.
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  SPEAKER_00: This one is quite sad.
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  SPEAKER_00: It opens on isolation,
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  SPEAKER_00: on loneliness,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the contemplation of those themes continues throughout the poem,
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  SPEAKER_00: starting first locally, and then really, I think, ending up cosmically.
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  SPEAKER_00: The speaker looks around and finds no comfort in nature,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I think it is at least possible to read the final line of the poem then
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  SPEAKER_00: as him also finding no comfort in supernature.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the most poignant idea or image to me is that of the sea's betrayal.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you live near the water, you grow accustomed to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is familiar.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is not often threatening.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in some cases,
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  SPEAKER_00: it can be Your source of life for the speaker in this poem,
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  SPEAKER_00: for instance,
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  SPEAKER_00: on a rocky island in the north,
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  SPEAKER_00: it might be that because things don't grow well,
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  SPEAKER_00: it is the bounty of the sea that sustains them.
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  SPEAKER_00: But then suddenly the sea is no longer company, as he puts it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's no longer a friend or a neighbor, or maybe that's worse.
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  SPEAKER_00: It continues to be your neighbor, but now it is turning on you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Storm on the Island We are prepared.
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  SPEAKER_00: We build our houses squat, sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
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  SPEAKER_00: This wizened earth has never troubled us with hay,
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  SPEAKER_00: so as you see there are no stacks or stooks that can be lost,
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  SPEAKER_00: nor are there trees which might prove company when it blows full blast.
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  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean.
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  SPEAKER_00: Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale,
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  SPEAKER_00: so that you listen to the thing you fear, forgetting that it pummels your house too.
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  SPEAKER_00: But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
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  SPEAKER_00: You might think that the sea is company, exploding comfortably down on the cliffs, but no.
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  SPEAKER_00: When it begins, the flung spray hits the very windows, spits like a tame cat turned savage.
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  SPEAKER_00: We just sit tight while wind dives and strafes invisibly.
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  SPEAKER_00: Space is a salvo.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are bombarded by the empty air.
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  SPEAKER_00: Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back next week, God willing, with more poetry for you.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime,
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  SPEAKER_00: find us at dailypoempod.substack.com where you can access our entire archive
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: of past Daily Poem episodes.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: As well as become a subscriber and supporter of the show.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson,
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  SPEAKER_00: welcoming your prayers as we prepare to welcome this storm
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  SPEAKER_00: and wishing you all happy reading.