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Year 10
AQA

Understanding 'Winter Swans' by Owen Sheers

I can explain how Sheers presents a change in the speaker’s romantic relationship with another person.

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Year 10
AQA

Understanding 'Winter Swans' by Owen Sheers

I can explain how Sheers presents a change in the speaker’s romantic relationship with another person.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Sheers depicts a relationship which is initially fragmented as the couple are physically and emotionally separated.
  2. By the end of the poem the couple have salvaged their relationship and are reunified.
  3. The inconsistent form followed by a final couplet could mirror the changing status of the relationship.
  4. The setting at the start of the poem reflects the couples despairing and hopeless emotions.
  5. The poem is from a wider collection entitled 'Skirrid Hill' which means 'shattered mountain'.

Keywords

  • Fragmented - broken into pieces; lacking togetherness or unity

  • Unified - formed or integrated into a whole; cohesive or combined

  • Hope - an optimistic expectation; a longing for a positive outcome

  • Despair - overwhelming sadness; a loss of hope

  • Salvageable - something that can be saved or repaired

Common misconception

Form and structure are the same thing.

Form deals with the 'poetic rules' that govern a poem and helps us to categorise it along with other similar poems whereas structure deals with how the ideas in the poem are ordered and organised.

The literacy focus of this lesson is tentative language. As you are reading aloud model answers, encourage students to raise their hand each time they hear you say an example of tentative language.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need access to the poem 'Winter Swans' by Owen Sheers. This can be found in the AQA Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the following is an example of a metaphor?
Correct answer: She was walking on sunshine.
He felt like he was on top of the world.
They felt like they'd won the lottery.
Her laugh sounded like it was jangling with joy.
Q2.
Which of the following is an example of a simile?
Anger took over him and he saw red.
Shaking with fury, they slammed the door and stalked away.
Her rage boiled over.
Correct answer: He stomped upstairs, fury coursing through his veins like molten lava.
Her eyes narrowed as she glared angrily at him.
Q3.
Which of the following is an example of personification?
The haunted house loomed over the landscape like a ghostly sentinel.
Creaking floorboards and rattling chains created a cacophony of chilling sounds.
The haunted house exuded an unsettling atmosphere.
The haunted house stood on the hill, a silent witness to the passage of time.
Correct answer: The ancient staircase groaned under the weight of unseen footsteps.
Q4.
'When quoting from a poem you do not need to use quotation marks.' Is this statement true or false?
True
Correct answer: False
Both - you use quotation marks for longer quotes but not for single words
Q5.
Starting with the first, put these stages of analysing a poem in chronological order.
1 - Read the poem and work out what it is about.
2 - Identify the mood/emotive tone of the poem.
3 - Re-read the poem and identify key words that stand out to you.
4 - Annotate the poem, labelling the language techniques found in key words/phrases.
Q6.
If a poem has no regular rhyme scheme and no regular rhythmic pattern, we say it is written in .
blank verse
Correct answer: free verse
creative verse
irregular verse
independent verse

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match up these words to the correct definitions.
Correct Answer:fragmented,Broken into pieces; lacking togetherness or unity

Broken into pieces; lacking togetherness or unity

Correct Answer:unified,Formed or integrated into a whole; cohesive or combined

Formed or integrated into a whole; cohesive or combined

Correct Answer:hope,An optimistic expectation; a longing for a positive outcome

An optimistic expectation; a longing for a positive outcome

Correct Answer:despair,Overwhelming sadness; a loss of hope

Overwhelming sadness; a loss of hope

Correct Answer:salvageable,Something that can be saved or repaired

Something that can be saved or repaired

Q2.
As 'Winter Swans' progresses, the mood shifts from despair to .
elation
joy
anger
Correct answer: hope
forgiveness
Q3.
'Winter Swans' is from a collection called 'Skirrid Hill' which means .
Correct answer: shattered mountain
demolished mountain
enormous mountain
rocky mountain
lonely mountain
Q4.
A tercet is .
Correct answer: a stanza with three lines
a stanza with two lines
a stanza with four lines
a stanza with five lines
a stanza with six lines
Q5.
In line 14 of 'Winter Swans', Sheers uses a to shift the mood of the poem and show a turning point for the couple.
Correct Answer: volta
Q6.
Starting with the first, put these quotations from 'Winter Swans' in the order they appear in the poem.
1 - "two days of rain and then a break"
2 - "silent and apart"
3 - "the swans came and stopped us"
4 - "porcelain over the stilling water"
5 - "'They mate for life', you said"
6 - "our hands, that had, somehow swum the distance between us"
7 - "like a pair of wings settling after flight"