Winter Swans - Owen Sheers

• 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.
• The clouds had given their all -

  two days of rain and then a break

  in which we walked,”
• • The poem begins by describing how the bad weather had finally ended so they went for a walk 
• • 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
• “the waterlogged earth

  gulping for breath at our feet

  as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,”
• • 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 
• “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.”

   
• • Sheers describes a dramatic moment which causes the couple to pause:
  • The imagery describes the swans as beautiful and natural 
• “'They mate for life' you said as they left,

  porcelain over the stilling water.”

   
• “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.”
• • A caesura reflects the paused communication: “as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,”
• Sheers shifts the tone with a turning point in stanza five: 

  The partner’s direct speech interrupts the silent monologue
• The poem ends with enjambment which could reflect the natural connection between them and their easy reconciliation
• 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 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
• Nature is a common theme seen throughout poetry
• The majority of poets, at some point or the other, will use the natural world as a metaphoric means of expression
• The natural world is something many poets aspire to harmonize with
• A significant range of human emotions can be expressed through natural phenomena
• Winter Swans

  A striking image, pairing white with white and beautiful with beautiful
• Owen Sheers uses nature to express an idea using unique, fresh words that give his work a sense of originality and a sense of the author's own perspective
• Poem structure

  • Verses are three lines long and neither rhyme nor adhere to particular syllable counts
  • Verses are not distinguished from sentences, creating a sense of run-on sentences
• Personification

  Clouds are given human qualities, like "giving their all" to rain
• The couple is silent and apart


  Until the swans appear
• Simile


  The swans' diving motion is "as though they are trying to roll something down their backs"
• Metaphor

  The swans "halved themselves in the dark water"
• The swans are described as "icebergs of white feathers in rough waters", portraying them as the image of peace and stability
• The other person speaks for the first time


  Telling the narrator that swans mate for life
• The couple's hands meet


  As the swans leave
• Sheers makes very little distinction between the natural world and the world of humans
• The idea of "winter" is never really brought into the poem, except through the weather
• The title image of "winter swans" is unusual, because swans are migratory creatures, preferring mild climates to cold ones
• The title image and in-poem metaphor of the swans as boats are apt descriptions for the couple, who needed a sign of stability to be able to drift closer to one another, in the midst of stormy weather, and perhaps rough times as well
• The abstract nature of the poem makes it difficult to say for sure, but thematically, it hits its mark, striking the ideas of togetherness and of nature in a strong, imagist way that really renders the ideas in Sheers's mind well
• "The clouds had given their all -"


  Natural imagery: personification of the weather - the heavy rain may reflect the problem in their relationship. Similarity to 'Porphyria's Lover'.
• "two days of rain and then a break

  in which we walked,"

  Form: enjambment emphasises the pause in the weather, and perhaps in their arguing. 'Break' could therefore represent a break in the argument and a 'break' in the weather.
• "the waterlogged earth"


  Content: saturated water could be to represent that like the earth in their relationship they have had enough.