Houses (Symbol)
The islanders' homes are a symbolic reflection of the people who live in them. They're humble, low, indestructible dwellings, made to survive hardship rather than to stand out. They're also handmade, the product and reflection of the island residents' hardworking natures. Just like the islanders, who are introduced to us as an unbreakable "we" rather than a disparate group of individuals, the houses are similar to one another, all made of the same natural materials. When the speaker tells us that building sturdy homes is part of the process of preparing for a storm, we can assume that the cultivation of a sturdy, tough personality is equally essential for the people who live in these homes. The islanders, like the houses that symbolize them, have made sacrifices for their survival—they seem to have given up some individuality, some frivolity, and some joyfulness or relaxation. However, it is these attributes that help them weather harsh conditions.
War and weaponry (Motif)
Towards the end of the poem, images and words reminiscent of war crop up with frequency. Within the final four lines of the poem, Heaney uses the verbs "dives" and "strafes" to describe the wind, comparing it to an attacking warplane. He then uses metaphor to compare space to a "salvo," a sudden discharge of artillery. Finally, he uses the verb "bombard" to describe the air. These words don't merely reference war: they reference moments of violent and dangerous attack, emphasizing the dangerous, sudden, and unrelenting way in which the storm strikes the islanders. Collectively, the war and weaponry motif suggests the enormous power of nature, able to effortlessly achieve the same energy as an army. At the same time, it also hints that the storm may itself be a metaphor for a human conflict. Of course, it is only the storm that is compared to or described in ways that evoke military might, suggesting that the conflict between the island and the storm is one-sided and uneven.
