Summary
"Winter Swans" is a poem that uses nature to represent reconciliation in a couple's strained relationship. The first stanza opens with the image of clouds exhausted after two days of rain. The break in the rain affords the couple, introduced as "we," the chance to walk outside. From the onset, nature is used to symbolize the couple's emotions and relationship status.
In the second stanza, the focus moves to the ground on which the couple walks. The earth is "waterlogged": evidence of the earlier outpouring of rain and emotions (Line 4). The couple is "[skirting] the lake, silent and apart" which further encapsulates the conflict between them (Line 6).
The scene suddenly changes in the third stanza with the appearance of swans, which the couple stops to watch. The unity of the swans contrasts with the physical and emotional distance between the human couple. In unison, the swans dip their heads underwater, and the speaker compares this movement to them rolling weights from their bodies to their heads.
With their heads underwater, they "halv[e] themselves," vanishing partially—and simultaneously—into the dark (Line 10). But despite this mutual journey into the unknown, they find their way back to each other “like boats righting in rough weather” (Line 12).
In the fifth stanza, we get the poem's first instance of speech: the speaker's partner remarks out loud that swans mate for life (Line 13). The speaker doesn't answer as they continue walking in the afternoon light. As they leave, the swans are compared to porcelain gliding over still water.
As the couple continues along the lakeshore in the sixth stanza, the speaker notices that their hands had somehow "swum the distance between [them]" (Line 18). The final couplet strengthens the notion of reconciliation with the simile of the couple's hands being like wings folding over each other. Upon observing the way the swans move through the water (separating and coming back together), the couple themselves become like the swans.
Analysis
"Winter Swans" relies upon the natural environment to symbolically represent conflict and resolution in a couple's relationship. In doing so, Sheers presents a lyrical moment that comments on the ability of nature both to serve as a metaphor for human relationships, and to influence and shape them.
Sheers situates the poem after an intense rainfall: "the clouds had given their all —," thus implying that the poem takes place in the calm after a storm (Line 1). To have "given [one's] all" in this context expresses an emptiness resulting from an intense outpouring. Dashes, like commas, introduce an explanatory clause that expands upon prior information, but they also have poetic implications. The dash at the end of this first line causes the reader to stop and take a breath. Though this first stanza reads rhythmically, there is no consistent meter in the poem.
By ending the second line with the word "break," Sheers describes the pause in the rain by literally creating a line break. The choice of the word "break" implies multiple meanings: a 'break' can be a separation, an interruption, or a pause. In this case, it is all three. There is the emotional and physical distance between the couple (further established in the next stanza), the change in the weather which enables them to change their routine, and the pause in their argument. That they are walking during a break is important: nature has mobilized them.
The second stanza elaborates on the conflict between the couple by describing both their physical movement and the nature surrounding them. The "waterlogged earth" is evidence of the prior rainfall, indicating built-up emotions (Line 5). This is not stable ground that the couple is walking on. The word "waterlogged" means saturated with or full of water; the word itself reads heavily because it is a compound word. A kind of suffocation is implied as this waterlogged earth "[gulps] for breath" at the couple's feet (Line 5).
The mood created by the personification of the clouds and the gulping, breathless earth is one of quiet desperation. The couple "[skirts] the lake, silent and apart," (Line 6). This is the first line that explicitly reveals the current nature of the couple's relationship. To "skirt" means to go around the edges, indicating that the couple is avoiding their issues. That they are "silent and apart" shows the physical and emotional distance between them, already heightened by the nature imagery preceding this line.
In the third stanza, the mood shifts as the couple watches a pair of swans. The swans themselves "came and stopped [the couple]," denoting a deliberate choice on the part of the swans (Line 7). The word "show" in Line 8 turns the actions of the swans into a performance. This active presence bestowed upon creatures of the natural environment echoes the way that nature was seen as a living force and divine expression during the Romantic period. Poets from this era turned to nature for comfort, learning, and communion with God.
The description of the swans' movement is graceful, as if they are "rolling weights down their bodies to their heads" (Line 9). The key detail is that they are doing this "in unison," which contrasts with the way the couple walks "silent and apart" (Lines 8 and 6). The description of rolling a weight down one's body is an act of letting heaviness pass through oneself. This is what the couple needs to do emotionally if they are to reconcile.
Thus far, every stanza transition has been marked by a completely expressed thought followed by a comma. For example:
The clouds had given their all -
two days of rain and then a break
in which we walked,
the waterlogged earth (Lines 1-4)
Though the first stanza is not end-stopped by a period or colon, there is still a pause between the action of the walking couple and the description of the earth beneath their feet. However, the transition from the third to the fourth stanza is the first to rely upon enjambment:
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 (Lines 9-12)
This adds a sense of urgency and excitement. Here, the swan couple both reflects and contrasts the human one. Just as the human couple experienced separation during a time of conflict (the metaphorical rain), so too have the swans "halved themselves in the dark water" (Line 10). In the dark water, they are "icebergs of white feather..." (Line 11). Icebergs express something hidden and possibly dangerous, as they are capable of sinking ships. In the next line, the swans are described as "boats righting in rough weather" (Line 12). The alliteration of the "r" sound creates a rhythm that shows the ease through which the swans navigate the rough weather.
The first instance of speech in the poem occurs when the speaker's partner remarks that swans mate for life (Line 13). The tone in this is said is unclear; it could indicate longing or even doubt in the relationship. Though the statement—if taken to reflect upon the couple's own relationship—is very devotional, there is still a sense of fragility. The swans, described as "porcelain," (a hard yet delicate white substance), leave the scene (Lines 13-14). The speaker doesn't reply, indicating an unreadiness to engage at this point. However, as they continue on their walk through the afternoon light, they hold hands (Lines 15-18). This had occurred some time before the speaker noticed it; the exact moment is not specified, only that it had occurred. A kind of magical element is introduced with the word "somehow," as if this was not the couple's direct choice but rather something else working through them (Line 17). The last lines of the poem support this.
our hands, that had, somehow,
swum the distance between us
and folded, one over the other,
like a pair of wings settling after flight (Lines 17-20)
Their hands are transformed into a swan capable of navigating the distance and conflict between them. The act of swimming is the means to move through water, which has repeatedly been established in the poem as representing conflict. This instance of physical touch between the couple signifies reconciliation.
The physical shape of the poem reflects this, as the last lines are written in a couplet instead of a tercet (differentiating it from the preceding stanzas). For this moment, the couple settles into the peace and unity of reconciliation.
