“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 storm is one of complete wonder and awe and acknowledgement at the sheer power of nature,
“Spits like a tame cat turned savage”, this quote is very indicative of that. In contrast to this Whitman’s outlook to a storm is one that suggests that he wants the reader to be aware of the threatening and aggressive nature of a storm,
“Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing”. In my opinion this line sums up everything about Whitman’s attitude to the storm. In spite of the fact that each poet’s feelings towards the storm are primarily different there are subtle similarities in their thoughts about the storm. From a personal standpoint I believe that there is a underlying feeling that both poets share, this is that they both accept and acknowledge that man cannot combat the power of nature and that all humans are condemned to the fact that all we can do is find the best means to adapt to natures elements.
With regards to the structure of each poem, Whitman’s Patrolling Barnegat is a sonnet despite the fact that it doesn’t abide by all the rules associated with sonnets. Heaney’s Storm on the Island is a blank verse poem with 10 syllables in each line.
The tone and rhythm of each poem reflects the poet’s own personal preference on how they wished to write and construct their own poem, unsurprisingly the tone and rhythm of each poem is uniquely different. The rhythm of Storm on the Island is one that flows steady in a controlled manner and the tone compliments this as it is written in a laid-back relaxed style. This relaxed tone gives me the impression that Heaney is having a conversation with the reader. In my view I think Heaney uses this conversational style to make the reader feel more involved, as if he wants to explain to the readers what it is like to live on a barren, remote and unprotected island. He wants the readers to understand the bleakness and fear its inhabitants feel.
On the other hand, the rhythm and tone of Whitman’s Patrolling Barnegat is totally dissimilar to that of Storm on the Island. The rhythm of Patrolling Barnegat is fast, dramatic and free flowing in comparison to Storm on the Island’s relaxed and laid back style, to me this undoubtedly indicates something about the two attitudes of the poets. Whitman achieves this fast and energetic rhythm by using short brief sentences which speed up the rate at which the poem is read and by his shrewd use of commas. This style of writing gives the reader a deep sense of the adventure and thrill felt during a storm.
In each poem many linguistic devices are utilized, maybe to explain a certain point further or to make the reader conscious of the severe threat of the storm. For example in Storm on the Island Heaney uses paradox to give the reader an idea of what the sea is like during a storm,
“Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs”. Heaney uses a simile to describe in detail the action of the sea
“Spits like a tame cat turned savage”.
In Patrolling Barnegat it is my own opinion that Whitman prefers to make less use of linguistic devices than Heaney but he does use repetition to great effect on more than one occasion. Whitman uses repetition which I think worked very well to help the readers understand the true wildness of the storm.
“Wild, wild the storm and the sea high running”. Whitman uses a uses personification to effectively describe the motion of the wind and by doing this he adds an extra dimension to his writing
“Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing”. Patrolling Barnegat is a poem written in a fast, energetic and dramatic fashion and the most vital part of achieving this was Whitman’s cunning strategy of ending each line with an ‘ing’ word. This method only helps to create the feeling of action and adventure and signifies that storm is unrelenting.
To conclude, from a personal viewpoint I believe that both Storm on the Island and Patrolling by Seamus Heaney and Walt Whitman respectively are two outstanding poems providing the readers with a flamboyant re-creation of a storm and how it affected 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.