Winter Swans
What it's about
Winter Swans by Owen Sheers describes a couple walking by a lake after two days of rain. They seem to be going through a difficult time and walk apart, in silence. Watching a pair of swans, who mate for life, they are drawn back together, and find they are holding hands.
Sheers, a Welsh poet, published it in 2005, in a collection called Skirrid Hill.
Form and structure
The poem has six , three-line stanzas, and ends with a , two lines. The couple come together as a pair at the end, just as the stanzas end with a pair of lines.
The poem is in , with lots of enjambment, like the slow, unsure steps of the walk. It starts after the storm, ‘The clouds had given their all’, suggesting the worst of an argument is over.
Key terms
Language
The of the soaked ground, ‘gulping for breath at our feet’, suggests the relationship is struggling to survive.
The swans stop the couple ‘with a show of tipping in unison’, moving together in a way the couple aren't. One of them says ‘They mate for life’, a hint about their own relationship. The swans are ‘porcelain over the stilling water’: beautiful and fragile, as the water calms.
At the end the couple's hands meet ‘like a pair of wings settling after flight’: they become like the swans, together again.
Key terms
Themes and comparisons
romantic love; a relationship in difficulty; nature reflecting feelings; reconciliation.
- : a couple by water in winter, but their love ends.
- Singh Song!: a happy, modern couple, also brought together by a moment outside.
- : love expressed through images of nature.
Exam tip
This poem is in copyright, so it won't be printed unless it's the named poem. Learn a few short quotations.