Winter Swans - Owen Shears

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

1. Speaker recalls walk round lake with partner after rain
2. Track is saturated and difficult to walk on
3. Couple stop to watch swan display
4. Swans leave and partner notes that swans stay together until one dies
5. Speaker and partner are reconciled

Question 2

Key Aspects

(9 things)

Answer 2

1. Main theme is reconciliation
2. Other themes are commitment and natural world
3. Image evoke natural world and intense feeling
4. Poem contains important motif of swans
5. Pathetic fallacy to describe aspects of nature
6. First person - can be read as addressed to partner or reader

Question 3

Key setting - the Lakeside

(4 things)

Answer 3

1. “the water logged earth/ gulping for breath” - alludes to their squelching and the way the relationship is stuck due to unsolved problems
2. Profusion of water reinforces these implications - “heavy rain in which “the clouds have given their all” - implies extreme weather and the difficulties in their relationship
3. Water of the lake is now still after the turbulence of the rain - just like the suggested turbulence in the relationship, perhaps after two days of rowing, has settled to this silent walk
4. Still lake suggests hidden depths - only respond when swans land as the couple respond emotionally to the swans

Question 4

Aiming High - The Swans - imagery dominates - motif of reconciliation

(6 things)

Answer 4

1. Tone of poem is bleak until the swans arrival
2. Swans are together, dip “in unison”, bob up again like boats “righting in rough weather” - simile shows what can be mended between the couple
3. Speaker’s partner notes that “swans mate for life” - broader perspective reminds couple of their commitment to each other
4. Simple gesture of holding hands “like a pair of wings settling after flight” reinforce reconciliation theme
5. Images of the birds form a motif that reinforce theme of reconciliation.
6. swans compared to iceberg - contrast coldness with soft feathers; also image of tip of the iceberg - hidden depths: there is surface turbulence of the water and of the couple’s rowinng, but hidden depths of the couples love and commitment that now come to the surface as swans remind couple of their love.

Question 5

Key Quotation - “I noticed our hands, that had, somehow, / swum the distance between us”

Answer 5

1. “I noticed our hands, that had, somehow, / swum the distance between us”
2. “Swum” has clear link with the swans swimming on the lake
3. Signals subtle, at first unconscious (without realising how), impact on mending the relationship
4. Sibilant used - soft c as well as s to have a soothing effect, gentler mood as couple move to reconciliation

Question 6

Writing about Closure

(6 things)

Answer 6

1. End with a couplet, as do sonnets (Which are also love poems)
2. Couplet represents speaker and partner being a couple again as well as sense of partnership-
3. Further reinforced by flight and light - full rhyme shared between 5th and last stanza - as well as sense of partnership
4. Establishes sense of closure and that difficultie are resolved
5. Light suggests darkness dispelled,
6. flight suggest freedom but also fleeing - the couple had run from each other and their difficulties but now are together and “settled”

Question 7

Viewpoint

(2 things)

Answer 7

1. First person past tense - “in which we walked”
2. First person - can be read as addressed to partner or reader

Question 8

Language and Imagery

(6 things)

Answer 8

1. Nature imagery throughout
2. “porcelain over the stilling water” - suggests calming in dispute
3. Mataphor - porcelain white suggesting marriage, also easily broken - relationships need care and respect
4. Simile - boat “righted in rough weather” - the mending, back to how it should be; holding hands like compared to wings “folded one over the other”
5. Motif of swans representing commitment and reconciliation
6. “gulping for breath” - suggests relationship is struggling to survive

Answer 9

1. Pathetic Fallacy - “The Clouds had given their all” - Clouds given human characteristic of determination; also a metaphor used to imply the disputes in the couples’ relationship
2. “The waterlogged earth” - couple mired in their relationship
3. “They halve themselves in the dark water” - pairing is common feature to emphasise their relationship

Question 10

Sounds

(2 things)

Answer 10

1. Sibilant
   
   1. “slow stepping in the lakes shingle and sand”;
   2. “Somehow swum the distance between us”
   3. soft gentle mood as couple head for reconciliation
2. Alliteration - used for emphasis - boat “righting itself in rough weather”, “over the other”

Question 11

Form

(5 things)

Answer 11

1. Free verse with some rhyme
2. 6 tersets with couplet at endFrequent
3. Enjambment eases movement between tersets, suggestive of walk around the lake
4. Final couplet provides resolution, reuniting the couple, as in a sonnet (also a love poem)
5. “Two days of rain and then a break” - break after line suggest the

Question 12

Context

(3 things)

Answer 12

1. Actor, poet, born in Fiji, lives in Wales
2. Known for lyricism and interest in natural world
3. Relationships and bonds and struggles between people are often focus of his work