Compare the ways the poets present nature in “Winter Swans” and “Love’s Philosophy”
Throughout the poems “Winter Swans” and “Love’s Philosophy”, both poems utilise the idea of
nature to perhaps illustrate a couple’s unity through a romantic relationship, emphasising that love
is fateful. However, while in “Winter Swans” Sheers explores how reconciliation can lead to a
renewed sense of romantic unity for a couple, Shelley manipulates nature to coerce the speaker’s
lover to enter into a romantic relationship.
Starting with “Winter Swans”, Sheers illustrates how nature reflects the joys and sufferings within a
romantic relationship. Through the metaphor “icebergs of white feather”, this may outline how love
is not simple and straightforward. Instead, the natural image of “icebergs” perhaps reveals the
hidden struggles love conceals under a façade of fairy-tale love that is reinforced by modern media
in order to perhaps highlight the sacrificial and necessary compromises required to sustain a
romantic relationship. This natural imagery is extended throughout the entire poem to perhaps
emphasise how these conflicts within a romantic relationship are natural and essential to strengthen
the unity between a couple. For example, at the end of the poem, the motif of water transforms
from the image of “icebergs” to the phrase “our hands swam across the distance”. By offering two
juxtaposing natural images of the same motif, Sheers perhaps reinforces how nature reflects the
fateful characteristic of romantic love; love will overcome adversity if it is true and genuine. Once
more, this may subvert the stereotypical perfect presentation of romantic love in order to possibly
bring awareness of how struggles with a romantic relationship are an opportunity to strengthen the
bond of a couple.
Similarly, Shelley reciprocates this idea of unity through “Love’s Philosophy” to perhaps reinforce
how romantic love is a natural endeavour. By using the natural imagery of “And the rivers with the
oceans”, this may outline how unity through love is a natural process regarded by all of creation,
justifying the speaker’s overwhelming desire to enter into a romantic relationship. Specifically, by
paralleling nature and the couple through the image of “rivers” and “oceans”, this may highlight the
speaker’s manipulation of nature to coerce their lover to unite in love and forces parallels with the
natural environment to perhaps heighten a sense of self-pity towards himself for making him
suffering being alone. This sense of desire is perhaps reinforced by the connective “And” as the
speaker’s impatience and uncontrolled fantasy for romantic pleasure consumes his actions
throughout the entire poem, tracing this idea of nature to build upon his desire to unite as a
romantic couple. Later on in the poem, the natural imagery zooms in from the “rivers” and “oceans”
to “sunlight” and “moonbeams”. By using microscopic imagery, the speaker’s tone shifts from calm
to frustration as he realises the unreciprocated love of the lover. Through the consistent use of
natural imagery, this may convey the speaker’s stubbornness to accept this rejection. This perhaps
catalyses the speaker to plough through with the symbolism of nature, resorting to suppressing the
female voice in the poem to uphold the idea of fateful love.
, Compare the ways poets present attitudes of admiration in the poems “Climbing My Grandfather”
and “Follower”
Throughout the poems “Climbing My Grandfather” and “Follower”, both poets explore the speaker’s
admiration towards older, parental figures within their families. On one hand, within “Climbing My
Grandfather”, Waterhouse traverses through the speaker’s admiration towards his grandfather,
prompting him to discover a new, sacrificial side to his grandfather. On the other hand, Heaney
reveals how growing up matures the speaker’s admiration towards his father in “Follower”.
Similarly, within both poems, the poets delve into how childhood influences each speaker’s initial
admiration and respect towards their elders. Starting with “Climbing My Grandfather”, Waterhouse
highlights the child-like trust the speaker has towards his grandfather, perhaps positioning his
grandfather as a source of comfort and stability. This is supported through the imagery of “I decided
to do it free without net or rope” which outlines the speaker’s dependency and commitment to
faithfully trust in his grandfather. Through this child perspective, one can observe how childhood
allows the speaker to take risks, knowing that he is supported by the strong familial bond with his
grandfather. As a result, through the initially careless action of “do it free without rope or net”, this
may reveal how child-like faith serves as a lens of how the speaker admires and is thankful towards
his grandfather for looking out for him. Furthermore, by using technical language specific to
mountain climbing through the nouns “rope” and “net”, Waterhouse perhaps indicates the journey
the speaker has taken to understand the character of his grandfather and his life before becoming
the speaker’s grandfather. This may ironically illustrate child-like innocence as the speaker traverses
“without rope or net” without knowing of any possible dangers that await or surprises he will
encounter while adventuring around the mountain that is his grandfather.
The metaphor “icebergs of white feather” presents love as complex and conflicting in order to
challenge the modern social constructs surrounding love, in relation to publicising relationships to
appear perfect, by presenting the theme of expectations vs reality. Through the use of the noun
“icebergs”, it perhaps suggests that romantic love involves both hardships and joy which encourages
the audience to endure both. Furthermore, through the use of natural imagery in the recurring motif
of “water”, it simultaneously presents hardships in romantic relationships as both natural and as an
unknown or unexpected experience. To compound upon this theme, the use of pathetic fallacy in
the phrase “the waterlogged earth gulped for breath at our feet” parallels the unspoken tension
between the couple. Nature is used to express the suffering and struggles of romantic relationships
to juxtapose with the lack of communication by the couple in order to present nature as a means of
unity.
COMPARE HOW POETS PRESENT FAILED RELATIONSHIPS IN ‘NEUTRAL TONES’ AND ‘WHEN WE
TWO PARTED’
Throughout the poems ‘Neutral Tones’ and ‘When We Two Parted’, both poets utilise failed
relationships to perhaps emphasis each speaker’s entrapment in order to subvert traditional
romanticised ideas about love. Instead, the poets reveal that love is not always successful on one’s
first relationship.
Within the poem ‘Neutral Tones’, Hardy explores the speaker’s obsession over their former lover as
a coping mechanism towards the reality of the couple’s failed relationship. Through the oxymoron
“The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing/Alive”, perhaps the speaker portrays their former
lover as distant, yet cruel for manipulating the speaker’s love through false acts of affection. By
Throughout the poems “Winter Swans” and “Love’s Philosophy”, both poems utilise the idea of
nature to perhaps illustrate a couple’s unity through a romantic relationship, emphasising that love
is fateful. However, while in “Winter Swans” Sheers explores how reconciliation can lead to a
renewed sense of romantic unity for a couple, Shelley manipulates nature to coerce the speaker’s
lover to enter into a romantic relationship.
Starting with “Winter Swans”, Sheers illustrates how nature reflects the joys and sufferings within a
romantic relationship. Through the metaphor “icebergs of white feather”, this may outline how love
is not simple and straightforward. Instead, the natural image of “icebergs” perhaps reveals the
hidden struggles love conceals under a façade of fairy-tale love that is reinforced by modern media
in order to perhaps highlight the sacrificial and necessary compromises required to sustain a
romantic relationship. This natural imagery is extended throughout the entire poem to perhaps
emphasise how these conflicts within a romantic relationship are natural and essential to strengthen
the unity between a couple. For example, at the end of the poem, the motif of water transforms
from the image of “icebergs” to the phrase “our hands swam across the distance”. By offering two
juxtaposing natural images of the same motif, Sheers perhaps reinforces how nature reflects the
fateful characteristic of romantic love; love will overcome adversity if it is true and genuine. Once
more, this may subvert the stereotypical perfect presentation of romantic love in order to possibly
bring awareness of how struggles with a romantic relationship are an opportunity to strengthen the
bond of a couple.
Similarly, Shelley reciprocates this idea of unity through “Love’s Philosophy” to perhaps reinforce
how romantic love is a natural endeavour. By using the natural imagery of “And the rivers with the
oceans”, this may outline how unity through love is a natural process regarded by all of creation,
justifying the speaker’s overwhelming desire to enter into a romantic relationship. Specifically, by
paralleling nature and the couple through the image of “rivers” and “oceans”, this may highlight the
speaker’s manipulation of nature to coerce their lover to unite in love and forces parallels with the
natural environment to perhaps heighten a sense of self-pity towards himself for making him
suffering being alone. This sense of desire is perhaps reinforced by the connective “And” as the
speaker’s impatience and uncontrolled fantasy for romantic pleasure consumes his actions
throughout the entire poem, tracing this idea of nature to build upon his desire to unite as a
romantic couple. Later on in the poem, the natural imagery zooms in from the “rivers” and “oceans”
to “sunlight” and “moonbeams”. By using microscopic imagery, the speaker’s tone shifts from calm
to frustration as he realises the unreciprocated love of the lover. Through the consistent use of
natural imagery, this may convey the speaker’s stubbornness to accept this rejection. This perhaps
catalyses the speaker to plough through with the symbolism of nature, resorting to suppressing the
female voice in the poem to uphold the idea of fateful love.
, Compare the ways poets present attitudes of admiration in the poems “Climbing My Grandfather”
and “Follower”
Throughout the poems “Climbing My Grandfather” and “Follower”, both poets explore the speaker’s
admiration towards older, parental figures within their families. On one hand, within “Climbing My
Grandfather”, Waterhouse traverses through the speaker’s admiration towards his grandfather,
prompting him to discover a new, sacrificial side to his grandfather. On the other hand, Heaney
reveals how growing up matures the speaker’s admiration towards his father in “Follower”.
Similarly, within both poems, the poets delve into how childhood influences each speaker’s initial
admiration and respect towards their elders. Starting with “Climbing My Grandfather”, Waterhouse
highlights the child-like trust the speaker has towards his grandfather, perhaps positioning his
grandfather as a source of comfort and stability. This is supported through the imagery of “I decided
to do it free without net or rope” which outlines the speaker’s dependency and commitment to
faithfully trust in his grandfather. Through this child perspective, one can observe how childhood
allows the speaker to take risks, knowing that he is supported by the strong familial bond with his
grandfather. As a result, through the initially careless action of “do it free without rope or net”, this
may reveal how child-like faith serves as a lens of how the speaker admires and is thankful towards
his grandfather for looking out for him. Furthermore, by using technical language specific to
mountain climbing through the nouns “rope” and “net”, Waterhouse perhaps indicates the journey
the speaker has taken to understand the character of his grandfather and his life before becoming
the speaker’s grandfather. This may ironically illustrate child-like innocence as the speaker traverses
“without rope or net” without knowing of any possible dangers that await or surprises he will
encounter while adventuring around the mountain that is his grandfather.
The metaphor “icebergs of white feather” presents love as complex and conflicting in order to
challenge the modern social constructs surrounding love, in relation to publicising relationships to
appear perfect, by presenting the theme of expectations vs reality. Through the use of the noun
“icebergs”, it perhaps suggests that romantic love involves both hardships and joy which encourages
the audience to endure both. Furthermore, through the use of natural imagery in the recurring motif
of “water”, it simultaneously presents hardships in romantic relationships as both natural and as an
unknown or unexpected experience. To compound upon this theme, the use of pathetic fallacy in
the phrase “the waterlogged earth gulped for breath at our feet” parallels the unspoken tension
between the couple. Nature is used to express the suffering and struggles of romantic relationships
to juxtapose with the lack of communication by the couple in order to present nature as a means of
unity.
COMPARE HOW POETS PRESENT FAILED RELATIONSHIPS IN ‘NEUTRAL TONES’ AND ‘WHEN WE
TWO PARTED’
Throughout the poems ‘Neutral Tones’ and ‘When We Two Parted’, both poets utilise failed
relationships to perhaps emphasis each speaker’s entrapment in order to subvert traditional
romanticised ideas about love. Instead, the poets reveal that love is not always successful on one’s
first relationship.
Within the poem ‘Neutral Tones’, Hardy explores the speaker’s obsession over their former lover as
a coping mechanism towards the reality of the couple’s failed relationship. Through the oxymoron
“The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing/Alive”, perhaps the speaker portrays their former
lover as distant, yet cruel for manipulating the speaker’s love through false acts of affection. By
