The Full Text of “Storm on the Island”
The Full Text of “Storm on the Island”
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“Storm on the Island” Introduction
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"Storm on the Island" is a poem by one Ireland's foremost writers, Seamus Heaney. In the poem, an unspecified narrator talks about an isolated island community. These islanders live in fear of a coming storm, and have no trees for shelter. On the surface level, the poem appears to be about nature's ultimate power over humankind. The anticipation of disaster, however, can also be interpreted as a comment on humankind's own capacity for violence, perhaps in relation to the political tensions in Northern Ireland during the 20th century (which became, soon after the poem's publication in 1966, what's now known as the Troubles).
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“Storm on the Island” Summary
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We are ready for the storm. Our dwellings are short and wide, built into rock and covered with high quality stone. The barren land doesn't provide us with many crops, and there's no hay that might blow away in the storm. There are no trees on the island. If there were, we would hear the storm blowing through them when it arrives. It would be like an Ancient Greek chorus, and we would hear the storm from the safety of our home, which it would be trying to destroy. There is no natural shelter here at all. If you think living by the sea is pleasant, you're wrong. When the waves hit the cliffs, sea spray attacks our windows. Like a pet cat turned wild again, it spits at us. Meanwhile, we huddle together. The wind blows violently around the island. Space is like a military onslaught, and empty air rains down on us. It's weird, how what we fear is a kind of great absence.
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“Storm on the Island” Themes
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Humankind vs. Nature
On the surface, at least, “Storm on the Island” is a poem about humankind and nature. Though people may build their protected communities to live in, nature is so powerful that no community is ever completely safe from destruction. The poem, then, shows humankind as being in constant negotiation with its environment.
Nature in poetry is often portrayed as idyllic and beautiful. “Storm on the Island,” however, presents another side of the natural world. The poem opens with the speaker describing the architecture of this rural, isolated community. Speaking on the community’s behalf, the speaker outlines how they build their dwellings in a way that they hope protects them from the natural elements. Their houses are “squat,” meaning low to the ground, and this low center of gravity makes them more stable. The walls are reinforced with rock and the roofs are covered with slate. These facts are evidence of the way that this community tries to protect itself from the more extreme aspects of nature (like storms).
On the one hand, then, the poem celebrates human resourcefulness. The speaker’s “island” seems to be a fairly inhospitable environment, yet people live there anyway—perhaps in a testament to their strength, perhaps to their foolishness. Either way, those in the speaker’s community live where they live despite the barren condition of the land (“the wizened earth”) and the lack of trees. The poem thus builds a sense of both isolation and community. The speaker’s people survive through cooperation and preparation. And in this isolated island society, nature remains a constant yet unpredictable threat.
On the other hand, the community also knows that when the storm does come, it will be overwhelming. At that point, the community will truly be tested and maybe even destroyed. The sea, something that people often enjoy, will “spit[]” at them like a “savage” cat, underscoring the poem’s sense of threat. The poem's final lines are ambiguous about whether the storm has arrived yet; the "wind" that "dives" could be the storm itself, or it could just be a windy day that makes the islanders think of storms. When the speaker says that "Space is a salvo,” it could mean that the wind (which is essentially empty space) is now battering the buildings—or it could mean, paradoxically, that the lack of a storm is a kind of bombardment. According to this second reading, the community projects its fears onto their imagination of the storm, showing how even just the idea of nature's power can be overwhelming. Either way, it's clear that the people on this island, despite all their careful preparations, can't actually be certain of staying safe in the storm.
“Storm on the Island,” then, speaks to humankind’s ability to be resourceful and make its home wherever it goes. But this survival, the poem implies, is always something that requires an element of luck, with nature always retaining the power—through storms or similar—to undo people’s hard work.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Conflict and Violence
Though the poem doesn’t make specific references to Anglo-Irish political tensions, a number of factors suggest that the poem can be interpreted as an examination of these tensions (alongside the more literal interpretation outlined in the other theme). The poem was published in Heaney’s first collection in 1966, which is just before what's generally agreed upon as the outbreak of the Troubles conflict—a complicated situation that involved ongoing tension and violence between those who wanted Northern Ireland to join with the rest of Ireland, and those who wanted it to stay part of the United Kingdom (this is explained further in the Historical Context section of the guide). Though the Troubles officially started shortly after the poem’s publication, it’s hardly even metaphorical to consider that conflict the arrival of a kind of storm. Furthermore, tensions were already high in the 1960s—indeed, they had been for hundreds of years!
Though the poem never makes explicit reference to the Irish situation, there are several clues that lend weight to this interpretation. First, there’s a hidden word in the title: “Storm on the Island.” The letters highlighted in bold spell “Stormont,” which is the name of the building that houses the government of Northern Ireland. A subtle signal, perhaps, that the poem is more politically engaged than it initially appears. Furthermore, “Ireland” itself is an island and these two words are homophones (they sound almost the same when said out loud).
Another important element in this reading of the poem is the way that it uses so much conflict-based language. The key words here are “pummels” (relentless punching), “shelter” (like a bomb shelter, perhaps), “strafes” (which can be a type of sideways machine-gun fire from a jet), “salvo” (an intense burst of fire), and “bombard[ment]” (a rapid series of shots or artillery). In an otherwise generic, almost mythical setting, these words tie the poem to the 20th century. They form a kind of world out of words (a fancy term for which would be a lexical field) that relates specifically to violence and military conflict.
Finally, it’s worth noting that there’s nothing in the poem that explicitly rules out this reading. For instance, the “squat” houses described in the opening could be the kind of buildings found in an urban environment like Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Indeed, the lack of trees could signal that this island is actually less rural than readers might expect. Perhaps, then, it's fair to see this poem as an expression of the fear that grips a community when tensions run high—when potential violence lurks like a storm on the horizon.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2
- Lines 3-10
- Lines 11-19
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Storm on the Island”
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Lines 1-5
We are prepared: ...
... can be lost.The poem opens with a small but important word: "we." This first-person plural pronoun signals immediately to the reader that this is a poem about community and togetherness; coupled with the slightly menacing title, already there is the sense that this will be a poem that examines the relationship—and sometimes conflict—between humankind and nature.
The caesura in the first line indicates that the speaker intends to explain just how the islanders are "prepared" for a storm. They build houses "squat"—which means these dwellings do not go very high—which helps protect them from potential damage from high winds. The consonance and alliteration (which is itself a form of consonance) across this line and line 2 reinforce that idea of a solid structure:
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.The selection of sounds here feels deliberate and methodical, gently suggesting the building of "squat" houses. That said though, the numerous /s/ sounds (also called sibilance) have a windy quality to them as well, which suggests the threat of a potential storm.
Lines 3 to 5 offer the reader more information about the island in question. The earth upon which the islanders have built their homes is "wizened," which means shriveled with old age. This makes it sound like a barren, near-inhospitable environment—which is confirmed by the fact that this same earth "has never troubled" the islanders with "hay." The speaker is being ironic here—hay would be useful to them, but it seems that the island doesn't provide anything useful.
The mention of trouble also foregrounds the way that, at some point, the islanders are expecting trouble. It's worth noting here that this specific word—"trouble"—can be taken as a subtle hint to the reader that the poem is an extended metaphor or allegory about the tensions in Northern Ireland. Though the poem was published near the beginning of the 20th-century period known as the Troubles, the name had been used to describe earlier Irish conflicts too. The Troubles is best known as the term that describes ongoing violence and tension in Northern Ireland (Heaney's home nation) during the late 20th century between, put simplistically, those who wanted to unify with the rest of Ireland (the Republic) and those who preferred to stay part of the United Kingdom.
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Lines 5-10
Nor are there ...
... your house too. -
Line 11
But there are ... no natural shelter.
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Lines 12-16
You might think ...
... Turned savage. -
Lines 16-19
We just sit ...
... that we fear
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“Storm on the Island” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is first used in the opening two lines. Here, the speaker discusses the kind of dwellings that the islanders have made on their land:
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.These /s/ and /r/ sounds draw attention to the poem's construction, in turn suggesting the building efforts of the islanders. That is, by making the reader more aware of the poetic line as something that is made, the poem conveys a sense of effort and method in keeping with the discussion of building sturdy houses. Interestingly, though, the /s/ sound (which is also known as sibilance) in these lines is airy, reminiscent of the wind that howls across the island. Accordingly, the alliteration simultaneously speaks to the quality of the houses and to nature's ability to potentially destroy them. The /s/ alliteration in lines 4 and 5 supports this idea further.
The next significant example of alliteration is in lines 6 and 7:
Which might prove company when it blows full
Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branchesThese /b/ sounds are the equivalent of the poem turning up its volume, happening just as the speaker discusses the loud noise of a storm blowing through trees (and possibly alludes to explosive devices). The two /c/ sounds in line 8 are similarly loud and hard, as are the two /f/ sounds of "fear" and "forgetting" in 9 and 10.
In line 11, the three /n/ sounds emphasize the poem's focus on negative space—on the lack of something rather than its presence (the threat of the storm as opposed to an actual storm). They place weight on the word "no," anticipating the "huge nothing" in the last line.
In lines 14-16, the poem likens the coming storm (which may be an extended metaphor for violence in Northern Ireland) to a "tame cat / Turned savage." These lines also go in heavy on hard /t/ and harsh /s/ sounds, as well as a repeated /b/ that recalls the "Blast" of line 7:
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind divesThis alliteration combines with internal consonance based on the same sounds to give the lines a spitting, menacing quality. Line 17 picks this up, with three words that also start with /s/.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “W,” “w,” “s”
- Line 2: “S,” “r,” “r,” “s”
- Line 4: “s,” “s,” “s”
- Line 5: “s”
- Line 6: “b”
- Line 7: “B,” “b”
- Line 8: “C,” “c”
- Line 9: “th,” “th,” “th,” “f”
- Line 10: “F”
- Line 11: “n,” “n,” “n”
- Line 12: “th,” “th,” “th,” “c”
- Line 13: “c,” “c”
- Line 14: “B,” “b”
- Line 15: “s,” “t”
- Line 16: “T,” “s,” “W,” “s,” “t,” “w,” “w”
- Line 17: “s,” “S,” “s”
- Line 18: “W,” “w”
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Allusion
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Extended Metaphor
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Oxymoron
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Personification
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Simile
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"Storm on the Island" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Squat
- Wizened
- Stacks
- Stooks
- Prove Company
- Tragic Chorus
- Pummels
- Strafes
- Salvo
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “squat”)
Short and wide, with a low center of gravity.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Storm on the Island”
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Form
"Storm on the Island" takes the form of one long unbroken stanza made up of 19 lines. Generally speaking, it starts and ends on a similar note: an atmosphere of tension and potential destruction and/or violence. The poem quite literally takes place in the calm before the storm, which the speaker—and the other islanders—seem certain is going to come before long. Perhaps the lack of stanza breaks—the lack of white space on the page—signals this ongoing tension. The lines also seem to huddle together, like a community of people "sit[ting] tight," fearful of what might lurk over the horizon.
The single stanza also creates a single mass on the page. Entertaining the idea that this mass of text is like an island, the white space of the page around it looks like the sea. Indeed, the poem itself is surrounded by a kind of "huge nothing"—in the same way that the absence of the storm is almost bad as its actual arrival. It's also worth noting that some publications break this poem up into separate stanzas.
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Meter
"Storm on the Island" is written in blank verse. This means each line is iambic pentameter (with some variations here and there): five feet of unstressed-stressed syllables (which sound like a da DUM rhythm).
Line 3 provides a typical example of this meter at work:
This wi- | zened earth | has nev- | er | trou- | bled us
Generally speaking, blank verse gives a poem a fairly steady tone—depending on what else is going on, this can seem authoritative or have the flow of conversation. The meter in this poem seems to work somewhere between the two, with the speaker acting as a spokesperson for the islanders while also speaking casually and familiarly ("you know what I mean"). But the regularity of the meter also feels a little tense, as though the speaker can't fully relax (what with the predicted literal or metaphorical storm on the horizon).
There are a couple of important variations to consider. In line 7, the poem swaps the first iamb for a trochee, bringing the stressed syllable forward to the start of the line ("Blast"). This has the effect of conveying the strength and violence suggested by the word "blast," hinting at the destruction that will come when the storm does eventually arrive.
Lines 15 and 16 also use effective variation—between them they manage to group four stressed syllables together:
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage.These stresses are surprising after so many lines of mostly regular meter, and the change gives these lines a kind of wildness, matching the image of a menacing, spitting cat. This variation creates the sudden presence of violence in the poem's sound, mirroring the islanders' fear of the storm.
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Rhyme Scheme
There is no rhyme scheme in "Storm on the Island." Instead, the poem is mostly written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). A rhyme scheme would probably get in the way of the poem's balance between conversational tone and tense atmosphere.
There are a few end words that nearly rhyme, however. For example, "squat" and "slate" in the first two lines almost have the solidity of full rhyme, but not quite. This perhaps suggests that the islanders' dwellings are not as secure as they might think.
The poem's last two end words nearly rhyme too: "air" and "fear." (This type of rhyme is known as slant rhyme.) This mismatch reinforces the speaker's point that what the islanders fear at the moment is a "huge nothing"—the islanders are terrified, but the thing they're afraid of doesn't even have a material shape; it's either still on its way or made of out of empty wind.
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“Storm on the Island” Speaker
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The speaker in "Storm on the Island" is not specified. The speaker has a fairly conversational tone that is also suffused with fear and tension based on the potential arrival of the storm. The speaker is also a kind of representative of their island, telling the "you" of the poem (the reader) about the island: how there's no shelter, and how the islanders fear a "huge nothing." Often, the speaker speaks in the first-person plural ("we"), highlighting that the speaker is only one of many people who share the same experience.
Just as the setting of the poem is kept deliberately vague, so too is the speaker's identity. There's no real sense of this person's age or gender, other than that they seem to be some kind of community leader or at least someone who knows this place well. The speaker expresses the fears of the islanders in vibrant language, painting a vivid picture for the reader. It's almost as if the speaker is giving the reader a guided tour of the island, though most of the tour is characterized by what is not there, rather than what actually is.
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“Storm on the Island” Setting
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As the title suggests, "Storm on the Island" is set on an island. Interestingly, though, there are no real details offered beyond the title. That is, the reader doesn't learn anything about the era in which the poem is set or the exact geographical location. The only specifics mentioned by the speaker don't really tell the reader much, other than that there are "squat" houses on the island, that little seems to grow there, and that the sea whips the island with spray. This gives the poem an almost mythic quality, a feeling that what it discusses is somehow universal. The islanders' fear is all the more relatable because it isn't tied to anything too specific.
That said, though, there is a case to be made for considering the poem's setting to be the island of Ireland—though it can't be confirmed for sure. The poem's title actually contains a place name—Stormont (Storm on the Island). This is the parliament building in Northern Ireland, and its presence in the title subtly suggests that the poem may be more politically specific than it appears on first glance. Furthermore, the use of modern military language in the last stanza—"strafes," "salvo," and "bombarded"—seems to tie the poem to the 20th century. Finally, the poem's setting also seems unnervingly accurate as a prediction of the near future (at the time of its publication). Soon after this poem was published in Heaney's first collection, tensions erupted into violence in Northern Ireland, initiating the stormy conflict known as the Troubles (which was to last almost until the end of the century).
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Literary and Historical Context of “Storm on the Island”
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Literary Context
Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet who lived from 1939 to 2013. Aside from W.B. Yeats, there is probably no other Irish writer whose work is read—and treasured—so widely. Heaney was born and raised in Northern Ireland, growing up in a Catholic household in a society that was largely Protestant. Education was important to Heaney; his teachers encouraged his taste for literature at an early age before he went on to study the subject at Queen's University in Belfast. Indeed, Heaney said of his own early years that he lived "a buried life and [then] entered the realm of education."
Heaney felt an affinity for poetry that used the poet's local environment as a kind of raw material; his early influences include Robert Frost, Patrick Kavanagh, and Ted Hughes. This poem is an exception in Heaney's first collection, Death of a Naturalist, which is otherwise firmly rooted in Heaney's youthful—and local—experiences (e.g., picking blackberries, or watching his father dig in the garden). In fact, this poem seems to deliberately do away with any specifics of time or place, making it feel almost mythical (and perhaps thereby making the fear it describes more universal).
Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966, was well received and helped Heaney gain international recognition. Indeed, it set him on the path of an illustrious career. Some of the poems in this collection were workshopped in a group known as The Belfast Group, which at one time or another included other important Irish poets such as Paul Muldoon, Ciarán Carson, and Michael Longley. Heaney published numerous books of poetry throughout his life, as well as plays and translations. He was the recipient of literature's highest honor, the Nobel Prize, in 1995.
Historical Context
One of the most notable aspects about "Storm on the Island" is the way that it doesn't seem to have a specific historical or geographical context. This lends the poem a mythic, almost universal quality—as though it could be happening anytime and anyplace. So on the one hand, the poem can be read literally as an account of humankind's fear of nature—and the power that nature holds to destroy.
But it's also important to consider an alternative reading, and to place the poem into the historical context of the time of its publication. Growing up in Northern Ireland and as an Irish poet, the political situation of Heaney's home country is a key feature of his poetry—even if it isn't always alluded to explicitly. The full story of Ireland's complex, centuries-long political landscape is beyond the scope of this guide, but, put simply, Northern Ireland was (and remains) a country divided between those who would prefer to unify with the rest of Ireland (the Republic) and those who are loyal to the United Kingdom (and its monarchy). By and large, the former group are Catholic (like Heaney's family), and the latter are Protestant.
This situation has roots that stretch back over the centuries (which perhaps makes it even more difficult to resolve). Ireland was one of England's earliest colonies, and England sent a large number of people to its northeastern corner to settle there during the 17th century. This largely Protestant group was soon larger than the population of local Catholics, and in 1801 the Act of Union formalized Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. The Catholics fought back, striving for independence from what they saw as their British oppressors. Eventually, this conflict brought about the settlement that most of Ireland could regain independence—with Northern Ireland staying instead as part of the United Kingdom.
Tensions did not end there, however, and Catholics in Northern Ireland felt that they were persecuted because of their religion and political beliefs. For example, business owners (who were largely Protestant and thereby loyal to the monarchy) were granted two votes rather than one in government elections. If interpreted as an allegory for this ongoing conflict, "Storm on the Island" is frighteningly accurate in its prediction of looming violence on the horizon. It was published just before the somewhat debated starting point of the Troubles conflict, which lasted from the late 1960s until nearly the end of the 20th century.
The Troubles was a battle over the identity and status of Northern Ireland. Put simply, it was a fight between those who wanted Northern Ireland to unify with the rest of Ireland—the Republic—and those who strongly felt that Northern Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom (which remains its status to this day). The latter group are known as Unionists, whereas the former group are known as Nationalists or Republicans.
The Troubles has been described as a "low-level war," not because it wasn't deadly and frightening, but because of the nature of the conflict. Explosives were often homemade, and fighting would break out on the same streets where people would usually go about their daily business. To this day, Belfast is divided by so-called "peace walls," attempts to keep the two communities apart. A hard-won and tense truce between the two sides culminated in the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998. This attempted to put into place a political power-sharing agreement, with the U.K. government relinquishing some of its powers to Northern Ireland. The Northern Irish situation remains fraught with difficulties, which are currently exacerbated by the problem of Brexit—the Republic of Ireland is and will remain a member of the European Union, regardless of the status of the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland).
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More “Storm on the Island” Resources
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External Resources
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Poetry and the Troubles — An interesting article about the response of Irish poets to the Troubles conflict.
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Heaney Looking Back — Heaney reflects on his life and career shortly after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Heaney's Life and Poetry — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation.
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Heaney Reads Aloud — Heaney reads some of his own poetry, including the first poem, "Digging," from the same collection as "Storm on the Island."
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An Animated History of Irish Conflict — This animation gives a quick summary of conflicts in Ireland over the centuries.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney
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