Winter Swans

Question 1

quote about Romantic Love + Nature?

Answer 1

“the clouds had given their all”:

-Personification = clouds to suggest they are external forces with ulterior motives which are negatively affecting the couple’s relationship.

-even nature can’t bring them together

“the waterlogged earth”:

-stanza implies ‘clogged up’ emotions to match the waterlogged ground - earth fights for breath, so do the lovers, unable to find words or speak openly.

-The guttural, alliterative’ ‘g’s in ‘waterlogged’ and ‘gulping’ convey this inability to speak, like a stammer.

-nature personified throughout the poem mirrors the inner turmon or the couple, with the shifting weather symbolising the ever-changing nature of romantic relationships - shows that love is a cycle of conflict, reconciliation, and reconnection.

Question 2

quote about longing / loss

Answer 2

“like a pair of wings settling after flight”

-To end with a final couplet brings resolution and completeness

-The interconnectedness of the swans reinforces the loss of connection and emotional intimacy between the couple.

-As the poem progresses, the pervasive (spread throughout) sense of loss dissipates (disappears) as they overcome this conflict.

Question 3

context

Answer 3

Owen Sheers was born in Fiji in 1974, but grew up in South Wales. ‘Winter Swans’ was published in his 2005 collection, Skirrid Hill. ‘Skirrid’ comes from the Welsh word Ysgariad, meaning divorce or separation.

Question 4

summary

Answer 4

1) A couple walk around a lake after two days of bad weather. They don’t talk to each other and they walk apart from each other - their relationship is troubled.
2) They stop at the sight of some swans and watch them as they tip underwater - they eventually right themselves and swim away. The swans’ display seems to change the mood between the couple.
3) The couple carry on walking and end up holding hands - they seem to have reconciled.

Question 5

form

Answer 5

FORM - The poem is mostly written in tercets (three-line stanzas), which makes each stanza look unbalanced. The uneven line lengths and lack of rhyme scheme also contribute to a feeling of disjointedness
- this reflects the troubled nature of the couple’s relationship. However, frequent enjambment emphasises its continuity. The final stanza is a couplet, which shows that they’ve been reunited as a couple.

Question 6

structure

Answer 6

STRUCTURE
-The narrator and his partner are separated for the first five stanzas, but they reunite
in the final two. The swans provide a turning point at the start of stanza three - they’re beautiful and inspirational, in contrast to earlier descriptions of nature as a place of suffering. This reflects how the couple have reached a turning point in their relationship.

Question 7

natural imagery

Answer 7

NATURAL IMAGERY
- Natural imagery reflects how their relationship struggles and then improves.
Swans are a metaphor for their relationship - as they’re part of the natural world, they show that love is natural. This influences the couple - they hold hands so naturally that they don’t even notice it happening.

Question 8

contrasts

Answer 8

CONTRASTS - Language about disturbance and peace, separation and togetherness, leaving then returning is used to show how a couple are making up after a period of conflict in their relationship.

Question 9

direct speech

Answer 9

DIRECT SPEECH
-One small piece of dialogue is used in the poem, which shifts the focus back
onto the couple. It also breaks the silence - this shows that there’s hope for their relationship.