When you think of an island, tiki torches and sherbert-colored sunsets might come to mind. Well, for this poem you'll need to remove the umbrella from your fruit punch, because the island we're on here is Ireland. 

Our poet, Seamus Heaney, is an Irishman, so this poem isn't too far from home, so to speak. An island that far north in the mighty Atlantic gets some seriously gnarly weather, so Heaney's surely witnessed his share of violent storms before, even if he didn't live right on the water. That's likely where the idea for "Storm on the Island" came about.

This poem was included in Heaney's first "welcome to the big leagues" collection, Death of a Naturalist, from 1966. This book is chock-full of natural imagery; check out "Blackberry Picking" or "Digging" from the same collection. Heaney pays very close attention to what is happening in nature, and in this particular collection he also draws from his own childhood growing up in Northern Ireland. "Storm on the Island," with its whipping wind and water, makes us want to give young Heaney an umbrella—and maybe a one-way ticket to Tahiti for a little vitamin D therapy.

Blazing wildfires in the western United States, tsunamis in the Pacific, earthquakes, hurricanes, devastating tornadoes—it might seem like the world is coming to an end every time you turn on the news. But what is it that really fascinates us about apocalyptic weather? Sure, the threat of having your home picked up and carried away is something to worry about. But maybe there's more to all of this than fancy graphics and dramatic music.

Seamus Heaney sure seems to think so. The people in his poem are doing all they can to survive on an island prone to storms and harsh natural conditions. And they're doing it all on their own. There aren't even any trees to keep them company in the furious violence of the storm. And maybe that realization—that we're all alone in the vast, powerful, and often terrible natural world—is what's got these people on edge.

We'd like to think that we have Mother Nature under control, what with our natural parks, zoos, and protected areas. But is it really that simple? Can we ever truly be in charge of the natural world? We know one group of folks, holed up in a storm, who might have something to say about that question.