Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols: context, form and key methods

A woman from the Caribbean, living in England, hears a great storm at night and is reminded of home, then realises she can belong in both places. This poem is in copyright, so it is described mainly in our own words.

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Context and Nichols's purpose

Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950 and moved to Britain in 1977. Pearson dates this poem to 1996. It is based on the Great Storm of October 1987, when hurricane-force winds struck southern England.
The poem explores displacement and how a person can make peace with living between two cultures.

Form and structure

Free verse with irregular stanzas. The first stanza is in the third person ("her"); the rest moves into the first person, as if the storm brings the speaker closer to herself.
She repeatedly calls out to the storm, asking it to speak to her.
The poem moves from fear and homesickness to a calm, joyful acceptance at the end.

Language and key methods

Apostrophe and repetition: she addresses storm gods from Caribbean and West African traditions, such as Huracan, Oya and Shango. The repeated call "Talk to me Huracan" shows her longing for connection.
Paradox: the destructive storm is also comforting, because it reminds her of home.
Resolution: she realises that "the earth is the earth", one world, so the boundaries between home and England break down.
Worked example

Compare how a sense of home is presented in Hurricane Hits England and Home Thoughts from Abroad.

  1. Both speakers live away from the place they think of as home.
  2. Nichols's storm and apostrophe; Browning's exclamations and natural detail.
  3. AO3: Nichols from Guyana living in England; Browning abroad in Italy.

Answer: Both Nichols and Browning present speakers who are reminded of home by nature. Browning's speaker longs for England, beginning "Oh, to be in England", and loving details of birds and blossom show his homesickness. Nichols's speaker is reminded of the Caribbean by a storm, and her repeated call "Talk to me Huracan" shows her reaching out to her heritage. However, while Browning ends by rejecting the foreign "gaudy melon-flower" in favour of England, Nichols ends by realising that "the earth is the earth", accepting that she can belong in both places. Browning's speaker divides the world into home and abroad; Nichols's brings them together.

Key idea

Nichols, from Guyana; 1996; Great Storm of October 1987. Free verse; third person to first person. Storm gods (Huracan, Oya, Shango); refrain "Talk to me Huracan"; destructive yet comforting storm; "the earth is the earth".

Key words
Context
The circumstances in which a text was written and set, such as historical events, social attitudes and the writer's life (AO3 in the GCSE, AO4 in the International GCSE).
Form
The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.
Free verse
Poetry without a regular rhyme scheme or metre.
Refrain
A line or phrase repeated at intervals through a poem or song.
Stanza
A group of lines forming a section of a poem (a verse).
Speaker
The voice of a poem. The speaker is not always the poet.

All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →

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Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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