Winter Swans (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem - printed in full - and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem
• The ideas and messages of the poet 
• How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Owen Sheers’s poem 'Winter Swans', from the Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s Methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Owen Sheers’s intention and message

'Winter Swans' in a nutshell

Winter Swans, written by the Welsh poet Owen Sheers, explores complex emotions within romantic relationships by depicting the distance between two lovers as they go for a walk to the lake. The poem’s resolution depicts the speaker and his lover finding renewed hope and intimacy after their close observation of a pair of swans.

'Winter Swans' overview

Lines 1-3

“The clouds had given their all -

two days of rain and then a break

in which we walked,”

 

Translation

• The poem begins by describing how the bad weather had finally ended so they went for a walk 

Sheers’s intention

• Sheers implies, through the use of pathetic fallacy, the recent conflict between the speaker and his lover brought angry emotions 
• The break in the weather symbolises a break in their arguments

 

Lines 4-6

“the waterlogged earth

gulping for breath at our feet

as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,”

 

Translation

• The poem describes how heavy the rain has been by describing the muddy path around the lake as “water-logged”
• The narrator describes the awkward mood of him and his lover 

Sheers’s intention

• Sheers implies a sense of claustrophobia felt by the couple having been kept inside
• However, there is little relief as the walk is challenging:
• The path is muddy and the pair are in the midst of an argument

 

Lines 7-12

“until the swans came and stopped us

with a show of tipping in unison.

 

As if rolling weights down their bodies to their heads

they halved themselves in the dark water,

icebergs of white feather, paused before returning again

like boats righting in rough weather.”

 

Translation

• The poem changes direction as the speaker describes how some swans interrupt their walk and they pause to watch:
• The swans’ movements are smooth and harmonious

Sheers’s intention

• Sheers describes a dramatic moment which causes the couple to pause:
• The imagery describes the swans as beautiful and natural 

 

Lines 13-14

“'They mate for life' you said as they left,

porcelain over the stilling water.”

 

Translation

• The speaker’s partner breaks the silence as the swans leave

Sheers’s intention

• Sheers presents the perspective of the speaker’s partner, which brings a balance to the poem, and suggests an equal relationship
• The sudden change of voice alludes to the way the speaker is startled as his reflections are interrupted   

 

Lines 14-20

“I didn't reply

but as we moved on through the afternoon light,

 

slow-stepping in the lake's shingle and sand,

I noticed our hands, that had, somehow,

swum the distance between us

 

and folded, one over the other,

like a pair of wings settling after flight.”

 

Translation

• The speaker confirms the tension of the moment as the speaker does not reply 
• However, as they walk they become physically closer, until they are holding hands

Sheers’s intention

• Sheers shows how the moment has impacted both the speaker and his partner:
• As they walk their physical closeness does not require dialogue
• They seem to mirror the the swans’ harmonious and silent actions

Although this section is organised into three separate sections - form, structure and language - it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Owen Sheer’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

The poem begins by exploring a conflict within a romantic relationship by depicting the frustration of awkward communication between the speaker and his partner. However, Sheers ends the poem with a clear resolution, as the couple find renewed intimacy through physical closeness. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Distance in romantic relationships	'Winter Swans' follows the speaker’s journey across seven stanzas to depict the progression of the couples’ argument: The poem begins describing the bad weather and their uncomfortable emotions But the third stanza begins with “until” suggesting a potential shift in mood when the swans arrive	Sheers presents emotional distance, despite physical closeness in romantic relationships by showing the slow and awkward communication and reconciliation between the speaker and their partner
	Although the first six stanzas are tercets, Sheers draws attention to the end of the poem and its clear resolution with a couplet	Sheers ends the conflict with a quick and effortless reconciliation: Sheers forms his poem in a way which suggests that closing the distance in a romantic relationship is simple and brings relief
	Owen Sheers’ poem mimics the slow passing of time to show emotional distance within a conflicted romantic relationship, however this is brought to a quick and comforting end as the couple find intimacy again with physical closeness

Structure

Sheers explores the unpredictable nature of emotions within a romantic relationship. His poem takes on an irregular structure which illustrates the awkward and emotional silences and communication between a pair during an argument.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Complex relationships	The lines are irregular and unrhymed: The disjointed rhythm mirrors the conflict between the speaker and their partner at the start: “The clouds had given their all -” A caesura reflects the paused communication: “as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,”	Sheers presents the awkwardness of the speaker’s tone to convey a typical conflict in a romantic relationship
	Sheers shifts the tone with a turning point in stanza five:  The partner’s direct speech interrupts the silent monologue	The dialogue breaks the silence between the couple, suggesting a change in mood
	However, the stilted communication continues as Sheers uses a caesura to show the speaker’s lack of response: “porcelain over the stilling water. I didn't reply”: However, the volta signals a change to a more peaceful mood: “but as we moved on through the afternoon light”	Sheers’ poem explores the breakdown in communication within a romantic relationship before illustrating how silence can rekindle their love
	The poem ends with enjambment which could reflect the natural connection between them and their easy reconciliation	Sheers structures his poem to reflect the difficulties in communication within a romantic relationship, which is eventually resolved by physical intimacy
	The poem reflects the broken communication between the couple which is relieved by a silent, physical closeness

Language

At  the beginning of the poem the narrator sets the scene with bad weather to reflect the mood of the couple as they decide to pause their argument and go for a walk. However, during the walk the pair encounter the natural and harmonious behaviour of a group of swans and this is the catalyst for their reconciliation. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Intimacy in romantic relationships	The poet uses pathetic fallacy to reflect the couple’s conflict:  The descriptions create a claustrophobic mood with personification: the earth “gulps” for air after the “The clouds had given their all -”	The natural imagery is described as suffocating and exhausting to mirror the emotions felt by the speaker
	The poet uses the verbal phrase “skirted the lake” to represent the way the couple walk, cautiously and awkwardly	Although they are physically together, they are avoiding one another emotionally, and are “silent and apart”
	Sheers presents the dramatic moment the swans arrive with dramatic imagery describing the swans in the “dark water,” with “icebergs of white feather” as “porcelain over the stilling water”	The moment is identified as a significant moment for the couple: The sibilance of “the swans came and stopped us” alerts readers to the vivid dance which entrances the speaker and their partner
	However, the poet presents the way nature motivates them to resolve their conflict using a simile to describe the swans as “like boats righting in rough weather”	Sheers suggests the couple’s conflict is put into perspective by the romantic and harmonious swan dance
	Sheers uses natural imagery to present the distance between the couple, as well as the way it brings them back together, showing conflict and physical closeness as natural elements of romantic relationships

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Owen Sheers which is unrelated to the ideas in Winter Swans. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Sheers in Winter Swans which relate to love and relationships. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Sheers explores:

• Complex romantic relationships
• Physical intimacy 

Complex romantic relationships

• Winter Swans is a modern poem, written by the poet Owen Sheers, born in 1974:
• The poem explores modern romantic love in a simple style which does not conform to traditional conventions:
• The structure is irregular
• He includes dialogue to present the partner’s perspective
• Sheers presents complexities within romantic relationships with simple language which conveys deeper, implicit meanings: “The clouds had given their all -/two days of rain and then a break”
• The poem Winter Swans is part of a collection called ‘Skirrid Hill’ which translates from Welsh as ‘shattered mountain’ or ‘divorced or separated’ 
• The collection explores natural separation in relationships
• Winter Swans depicts an argument within a romantic relationship:
• Sheers shows the couple as “silent and apart” after two days of arguing

Physical intimacy  

• Sheers is a British poet from Wales who also works as a TV presenter, playwright, and is also an anthologist:
• His poetry explores human relationships and the natural world, which is evident in Winter Swans
• As a child Sheers worked on a farm, inspiring him to set his poetry within natural landscapes and explore the connections between human emotions and nature:
• In Winter Swans, the poet personifies the “water-logged earth” “gulping for breath” around the muddy lake in order to convey the mood of the couple
• Sheers explores the way nature manages relationships and his poetry encourages human attentiveness toward the environment:
• In this way, his poems are considered to be linked to Romantic poetry
• In Winter Swans the swans are shown as naturally and easily in harmony with each other as they move “in unison”
• Their behaviour encourages the lovers to reconnect with each other:
• They hold hands and fold them “like “a pair of wings”
• The swans that appear in this poem are known as mute swans, known for their lack of sound:
• Their silent companionship is presented positively in the poem: “like boats righting in rough weather”
• The poem considers the significance of physical intimacy, without the need for words
• Mute swans have always been considered very valuable in England; they were traded within the upper-class during the Middle Ages and are still owned by the monarch of England:
• For this reason, swans connote majesty
• Sheers shows the swans as graceful, using beautiful imagery to describe them
• Perhaps he is conveying the value of physical intimacy and harmony within relationships

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about love or relationships, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that 'Winter Swans' explores the ideas of distanced relationships and physical love, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

• 'Winter Swans' and 'Letters from Yorkshire' 
• 'Winter Swans' and 'Love’s Philosophy' 
• 'Winter Swans' and 'Walking Away'

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

'Winter Swans' and 'Letters From Yorkshire'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Owen Sheers’ 'Winter Swans' and Maura Dooley’s 'Letters From Yorkshire' use natural settings for their poems about disrupted relationships. While Sheers explores emotional distance in romantic relationships, Dooley explores physical distance in family relationships.    

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems suggest nature mirrors emotions within relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Letters from Yorkshire'
	Sheers uses pathetic fallacy to represent the strained and stormy conflict between the speaker and his partner: “The clouds had given their all”	Dooley also uses natural imagery to compare the distance in the relationship to bad weather : “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons/turning”
	Sheers uses sensory imagery to present the physical connection the couple share: “but as we moved on through the afternoon light,/slow-stepping in the lake's shingle and sand”	Dooley, too, uses sensory imagery to convey the close connection in the relationship: “at night, watching the same news in different houses,/our souls tap out messages across the icy miles
	Sheers presents the couple rekindling their connection after watching and mimicking the swans: “and folded, one over the other,/like a pair of wings settling after flight.”	Similarly, Dooley presents nature as providing a connection in their relationship: “he saw the first lapwings return and came indoors to write to me”
	Disrupted relationships due to emotional or physical separation are explored through the descriptions of natural settings which remind the speakers of their love

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Sheers illustrates physical love as the way to harmony in romantic relationships, Dooley’s poem presents emotional intimacy in a family relationship
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Letters from Yorkshire'
	Sheers uses alliteration to present the heavy emotions caused by distance in a romantic relationship: “in which we walked,/the waterlogged earth”	However, Dooley uses personification to present the emotional connection in the family relationship, despite physical distance: “and came/indoors to write to me, his knuckles singing”
	Sheers presents the broken communication in the relationship despite their physical presence with brief and awkward dialogue: 'They mate for life' you said as they left” However the speaker is silent: “I didn't reply”	Dooley shows the way communication occurs easily across the miles with a rhetorical question and the implied speech of the father: “Is your life more real because you dig and sow?/You wouldn't say so
	Sheers presents physical closeness as the answer to emotional distance in a romantic relationship with metaphorical language: “I noticed our hands, that had, somehow,/swum the distance between us”	In contrast, Dooley’s poem presents the way emotional closeness brings relief within family relationships separated by distance with imagery relating to communication: “pouring air and light into an envelope”
	While Sheers presents the significance of physical closeness in a romantic relationship, Dooley explores powerful emotional intimacy within a platonic family relationship

'Winter Swans' and 'Love’s Philosophy'

Comparison in a nutshell:

This is an effective comparative choice to explore physical intimacy within conflicted romantic relationships. Both poets describe the harmony of nature as justification for harmony in romantic relationships, however Sheers’ poem suggests a more balanced and equal relationship, while Shelley’s monologue implies the speaker’s isolation 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems explore the frustration of denied physical intimacy in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Sheers presents the awkward and stilted communication between the lovers using dialogue relating to physical love: 'They mate for life' you said as they left,/porcelain over the stilling water. I didn't reply”	Similarly, Shelley’s speaker presents the one-sided and physically-charged conversation between he and his lover with a rhetorical question: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”
	Sheers’ speaker presents the uneasy emotions with caesura: “as we skirted the lake, silent and apart”	Similarly, Shelley’s speaker conveys confusion regarding the separation in romantic relationships with punctuation: “Why not I with thine?—”
	The poets comment on the frustration of denied physical love within romantic relationships by presenting the broken communication which leads to separation

Topic sentence	Both poems comment on physical love as unifying
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Sheers describes the swans as one: they are “in unison” as they “halved themselves”	Shelley’s speaker, too, argues that it is a law of nature to come together in unity: “Nothing in the world is single” as all things “in one spirit mingle”
	Sheers uses natural imagery to present romantic love closely linked to nature:  The couple copy the movements of the swans as they hold hands: “folded, one over the other,/like a pair of wings”	Shelley personifies nature to present love as natural and physically intimate:  The winds mix “for ever with a sweet emotion”, the mountains “kiss” the heavens and the waves “clasp” one another
	Both poems present physical love as natural and the answer to the painful separations within romantic relationships

 Differences:

Topic sentence	While Sheers ends his poem with clear resolution brought about by physical intimacy, Shelley’s speaker is left alone and without an answer
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Sheers presents the relationship as close, using the first person plural pronoun to narrate their walk around the lake: “we walked, the waterlogged earth”	Shelley’s speaker, however, directly addresses a silent lover throughout the poem
	The poem ends with the speaker’s rekindled physical connection, illustrated by a simile which compares their physical closeness to the harmonious swans: "like a pair of wings settling after flight”	Shelley’s speaker ends his poem without resolution, and still frustrated: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”
	Sheers’ modern poem suggests the couple’s interactive and balanced relationship leads them to find renewed intimacy after their mutual observation of nature, while Shelley’s monologue ends with an isolated speaker still hoping for physical intimacy in a more traditional love poem

'Winter Swans' and 'Walking Away'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Owen Sheers’ 'Winter Swans' and Cecil Day Lewis’ 'Walking Away' explore separation and distance in relationships. While Sheers depicts a renewed physical closeness found through observation of nature, Day Lewis depicts the continued distance as a harsh rule of nature. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems highlight the challenging emotions of distance and separation in relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Walking Away'
	Sheers uses natural imagery to convey the heavy emotions caused by the conflict: “the waterlogged earth/gulping for breath at our feet”	Correspondingly, Day Lewis uses a simile to compare the painful emotions of separation: “like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit”
	The poet uses alliteration to draw attention to the verb which connotes the awkward emotional distance between the couple: “we skirted the lake, silent and apart”	Similarly, Day Lewis uses verbs which illustrate the pain as the parent and child separate: “grasp” and “gnaws”
	The poet illustrates the lack of communication between the pair: “I didn’t reply”	Here, too, the poet describes the silent distance between the parent and child: “I can see/You walking away from me”
	The poets both comment on the challenging emotions of separation by describing recollections of painful moments in their relationship in vivid detail

Differences:

Topic sentence	Owen Sheers presents the way nature brings harmony and closeness to the distant couple, whereas Cecil Day Lewis describes the process of separation as natural
Evidence and analysis	'Winter Swans'	'Walking Away'
	Sheers’ speaker suggests the act of watching the swans brings the couple together: “silent and apart,/until the swans came and stopped us”	Whereas, Day Lewis’ speaker uses present continuous verbs to illustrate nature as constantly separating relationships: “drifting away”, “walking away” and “eddying away”
	Sheers describes nature as peaceful and gentle, using imagery which shows the swans working in harmony:  The swans are “in unison” as they “halved themselves” “like icebergs of white feather”	Day Lewis, however, depicts nature as harsh: “About nature’s give-and-take — the small, the scorching/Ordeals”
	'Winter Swans' uses the imagery of swans wings to present renewed love: “like a pair of wings settling after flight.””	However, 'Walking Away' uses the image of wings in a simile which compares the natural separation within relationships to that of nature: “Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem”
	Owen Sheers ends his poem, 'Winter Swans', with a natural resolution as the speaker and their loved one find physical intimacy, while Cecil Day Lewis chooses to end his poem, 'Walking Away', depicting a relentless, yet natural separation in family relationships