Winter Swans

Winter Swans - Owen Sheers

COMPARE TO FOLLOWER

Extra Detail:

• Rigid 3 line stanzas until the last one
  • Distance between them
    • Gets closer
• Enjambment
• Metaphors
• Personification
• Themes: 
  • Partnership
  • Conflict
  • Romantic Love

Context:

• A lot of Sheers poems are based on sadness
  • Some inspired by deaths in wars, in suicides, in illness and moments of seperatioin between all types of relationships (like this one)

Stanza 1:

• "The clouds had given their all - / two days of rain and then a break / in which we walked,"
  • "Given their all"
    • Had an argument / Have had a break
    • Metaphor for the argument
  • Enjambment 
    • They continue / still together

Stanza 2:

• "the waterlogged earth / gulping for breath at our feet / as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,"
  • "Waterlogged"
    • They are weighed down by tears and the argument (run out of tears)
  • "Gulping for breath at out feet"
    • Struggling for a break from arguing
      • The relationship is struggling to remain
  • "Skirted"
    • Avoiding something
      • The topic of the argument
    • Skirting - round in circles never going across
      • like a lake... they're going around instead of just doing what they need to
  • Caesura
    • Reflective of the couple
      • "Silent and apart"
        • The line itself is apart due to the caesura
      • "And"
        • Still linked but considered seperate

Stanza 3:

• "until the swans came and stopped us / with a show…