Winter Swans

Question 1

How does Sheers parallel the behaviour of humans and animals in this poem?

Answer 1

He and his lover to model their behaviour on that of the birds. The birds swim apart but eventually return to each other, just like the lovers’ hands.

Question 2

Describe the impact of the pathetic fallacy in the first stanza.

Answer 2

Personification of the clouds in the first line; a cloud, of course, cannot put effort into anything, but by suggesting the clouds are giving the process of rain “their all,” the narrator uses familiar language to suggest that it has been raining very heavily. Signifies despair between couple.

Question 3

Does the personification continue?

Answer 3

Yes. ‘Gulping for breath’

Question 4

Describe the significance of ‘swimming the distance between us’.

Answer 4

• The use of the metaphor of the hands “swimming the distance” is a strong reference to the swans from before, and is almost a reverse of the personifying of natural elements from earlier.
• This time it is the humans who are becoming a little more like the natural world, and coming closer together in appreciation of its beauty.

Question 5

Describe the final couplet.

Answer 5

It centralises around the theme of unity - a couplet for a couple.