Distance

Question 1

‘We skirted the lake, silent and apart,’

Answer 1

L/D= verb suggests they are perhaps also skirting around the issue that has divided them emotionally.
Caesura in the line emphasizes their emotional separation and lack of communication.

Question 2

‘word of that other world… pouring air and light into an envelope’

Answer 2

L/I= alliteration – links word and world – his words make her feel closer to his world. Alternatively, the physical distance between them means his life feels like a different world to her own. L = metaphor. She romanticises his words as being like light and air, which are both necessary for growth/to thrive.
I = his words come from a natural environment; hers from an implicitly urban environment. Alternatively, she finds his words a breath of fresh air that lift her spirits.
C = Dooley moved from rural Yorkshire to London – reflects her longing for the Yorkshire countryside.

Question 3

‘he saw the first lapwings return’

Answer 3

C/I= lapwings return to the same place to mate each year. She is envious of his connection with nature; the phrase also implies that she wishes, like the lapwings, that she could return to her ‘mate’.

Question 4

‘our souls tap out messages across the icy miles’

Answer 4

L = metaphor & inclusive pronoun emphasizes their deep spiritual bond, which is conveyed through the written word and which connects them despite the physical distance between them.

Question 5

‘our hands…swum the distance between us and folded… like a pair of wings’

Answer 5

L = literally and metaphorically.  Simile emphasizes the swans are the catalyst for the change in mood of the relationship as swans mate for life. The couple reunites.
C = Sheers message may be that relationships need to be worked at; couples in modern society give up too easily on relationships.

Question 6

‘The clouds had given their all’

Answer 6

L = personification/pathetic fallacy. Reflects the stormy nature of their relationship, tears and arguments. It implies they feel they have nothing left to give each other.

Question 7

Umbrella sentence:

Answer 7

In ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ and ‘Winter Swans’ both poets explore the effects of different types of distance.

Question 8

TS1:

Answer 8

Whereas the distance between the couple in ‘Winter Swans’ is emotional, in ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ it is physical.

Question 9

TS2:

Answer 9

Both poems use natural imagery to convey distance.

Question 10

TS3:

Answer 10

In ‘Winter Swans’ the swans are the catalyst to close the distance between them; in ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ written communication overcomes the distance between them.

Question 11

structure:

Answer 11

Structurally, both poems are written in tercets, however in ‘Winter Swans’ in the final stanza this pattern breaks to reflect their reunion as a couple.