Aleena Islam
HURRICANE HITS ENGLAND – Grace Nichols
Themes
Spiritual and personal importance, identity, culture, relief, alienation, deity
Contextual overview
The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force
winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands. In the
1970s, Nichols migrated from Guyana, Caribbean to England as a child. Yet she
began to miss the recurring hurricanes that were frequent in the Caribbean
Islands and longed to return back to her culture of Guyana. However, as a
hurricane hits England, the reader perceives the transformation that the poet
undergoes; she originally feels isolated and foreign, but slowly starts to acquire a
sense of consolation and comfort from the identical sounds and sights of the
hurricane, as if she were in Guyana again. Towards the end of the poem, the
hurricane is what allows her to feel truly at home. The speaker reflects on the
impact a mighty storm has made on her and her surroundings. Feelings of
dislocation and separation from her homeland in the West Indies are somehow
resolved by the experience of being hit by a huge hurricane, something that she
would have been familiar with from her earlier years. The poem evolves into a
kind of incantation, following both a physical and then a spiritual awakening in
the speaker, resulting in the revelation that we are all, despite our differing
backgrounds and heritage, connected by a common humanity.
Key features of language, form and structure
- The first stanza, addresses the poet in the third person; ‘It took a
hurricane to bring her closer to the landscape.’ This demonstrates the fact
that the poet feels apprehensive of this foreign land, and that the only way
in which she relaxes is by being consoled by the familiar hurricane.
- The poet describes the howling sounds of the hurricane as ‘fearful and
reassuring.’ The oxymoron conveys the fear of the storm but also that
the hurricane reminds the young woman of home in the Caribbean – and is
therefore comforting. The fact that she feels reassured by this threatening
hurricane illustrates how different her culture is to the that of England.
- The second stanza shifts to a first-person perspective as the poet calls
upon the storm deities of the Caribbean; ‘Talk to me Huracan talk to me
Oya talk to me Shango and Hattie.’ The anaphora of imperatives
illustrates the poet pleading for the company of her Gods. This
desperation portrays how she yearns to feel the old comfort of her
previous culture, and how dislocated she feels from her original home.
- The poet describes the storm as ‘my … back-home cousin.’ The
possessive pronoun ‘my’ illustrates her personal connection to her
homeland, while the metaphor of ‘cousin’ serves to reinforce the sense of
familiarity and trust she feels given that a cousin is a person of close
familial relation.
- The third stanza begins to portray the poet’s confusion at the presence of
her beloved hurricane at the English coast. She questions the hurricane
and states, ‘what is the meaning of old tongues reaping havoc in new
HURRICANE HITS ENGLAND – Grace Nichols
Themes
Spiritual and personal importance, identity, culture, relief, alienation, deity
Contextual overview
The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force
winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands. In the
1970s, Nichols migrated from Guyana, Caribbean to England as a child. Yet she
began to miss the recurring hurricanes that were frequent in the Caribbean
Islands and longed to return back to her culture of Guyana. However, as a
hurricane hits England, the reader perceives the transformation that the poet
undergoes; she originally feels isolated and foreign, but slowly starts to acquire a
sense of consolation and comfort from the identical sounds and sights of the
hurricane, as if she were in Guyana again. Towards the end of the poem, the
hurricane is what allows her to feel truly at home. The speaker reflects on the
impact a mighty storm has made on her and her surroundings. Feelings of
dislocation and separation from her homeland in the West Indies are somehow
resolved by the experience of being hit by a huge hurricane, something that she
would have been familiar with from her earlier years. The poem evolves into a
kind of incantation, following both a physical and then a spiritual awakening in
the speaker, resulting in the revelation that we are all, despite our differing
backgrounds and heritage, connected by a common humanity.
Key features of language, form and structure
- The first stanza, addresses the poet in the third person; ‘It took a
hurricane to bring her closer to the landscape.’ This demonstrates the fact
that the poet feels apprehensive of this foreign land, and that the only way
in which she relaxes is by being consoled by the familiar hurricane.
- The poet describes the howling sounds of the hurricane as ‘fearful and
reassuring.’ The oxymoron conveys the fear of the storm but also that
the hurricane reminds the young woman of home in the Caribbean – and is
therefore comforting. The fact that she feels reassured by this threatening
hurricane illustrates how different her culture is to the that of England.
- The second stanza shifts to a first-person perspective as the poet calls
upon the storm deities of the Caribbean; ‘Talk to me Huracan talk to me
Oya talk to me Shango and Hattie.’ The anaphora of imperatives
illustrates the poet pleading for the company of her Gods. This
desperation portrays how she yearns to feel the old comfort of her
previous culture, and how dislocated she feels from her original home.
- The poet describes the storm as ‘my … back-home cousin.’ The
possessive pronoun ‘my’ illustrates her personal connection to her
homeland, while the metaphor of ‘cousin’ serves to reinforce the sense of
familiarity and trust she feels given that a cousin is a person of close
familial relation.
- The third stanza begins to portray the poet’s confusion at the presence of
her beloved hurricane at the English coast. She questions the hurricane
and states, ‘what is the meaning of old tongues reaping havoc in new
