Comparing two poems - 'Winter Swans' and 'Tissue'
The idea of this resource is to help students to understand what structure is and how to
compare it in poetry, with a specific focus on AQA GCSE English Literature (2015
onwards).
These poems are from different clusters, so you could use the techniques suggested to
practise unseen poetry skills, or to introduce a new poem.
1. Don’t show the students the poems at the start. It isn’t even necessary to
mention poetry or to present these as lines of poetry. Give students the first line
of ‘Winter Swans’ (‘The clouds had given their all’). This could be verbally, on
screen, or on a slip of paper (using the worksheet below).
2. Ask students to think about what just these words suggest – what is being
described, what the implications might be, and to jot down these ideas. You
could then discuss these as a class.
3. Show the students the final line (‘like a pair of wings settling after flight’). The
same principles apply. What do these words suggest? What image might they
create? What do they suggest? What mood is created? You could then discuss
these ideas as a class.
4. Place the two lines next to each other. What could they say about each one in the
light of the other? How do their notes about each line compare? What might have
happened in between these lines? Why?
5. Explain to the students that effectively the structure of the poem can be explored
by the mood / ideas at the start, the mood / ideas at the end, and the mood /
ideas / changes and reasons for them in between.
6. Present a line from the middle, such as ‘until the swans came and stopped us’.
How does this line link to the opening line? What has changed? What new
information do we have? How does this affect the way we read the other two
lines?
7. You could then present another line, such as ‘the waterlogged earth / gulping for
breath at our feet’ and ask students where in the structure of the poem they
think this might come from, and why – justifying their ideas in terms of links with
the opening, middle or end line. Another line which works well is: ‘‘They mate for
life’ you said as they left’
8. Following this, present the extract ‘silent and apart’ from the start. Ask students
to consider the final line again. What kind of change has happened? What journey
might the two people have been on?
9. Once you feel you have gleaned as much as you wish from these activities, you
could present the whole poem and get the students to ‘piece’ their ideas
together.
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Comparing two poems - 'Winter Swans' and 'Tissue'
The clouds had given their all -
the waterlogged earth
gulping for breath at our feet
silent and apart,
‘They mate for life’ you said as they left
like a pair of wings settling after flight.
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Comparing two poems - 'Winter Swans' and 'Tissue'
1. You could then consider a second poem, such as ‘Tissue’ by Imtiaz Dharker.
2. This time, present the final line of the poem: ‘turned into your skin’. How does
this make the students feel? How does it work as a concluding line? What is the
effect of such a personal address?
3. Present the title of the poem: ‘Tissue’. What are the possible meanings of this
word? How might it relate to the previous line? You could introduce the idea of
‘paper’ if it assists the discussion.
4. Once you begin discussing paper and what it represents, you could look at the
following descriptions in order and explore why they may be presented in this
order:
‘thinned by age’
‘transparent with attention’
‘maps’
‘Fine slips from grocery shops’
‘paper kites’
‘a grand design’
‘with living tissue, raise a structure’
‘paper... turned into your skin’ (final line of the poem)
5. You could then now read the whole poem together, then organise ideas into a
table (see below) comparing the two poems.
Poem 1 extract
Comment
Winter Swans
Title. Suggests
wildness of nature
and more than one
creature. Coldness
and death.
Hibernation.
Ready for change.
The clouds had
given their all
Presents clouds as
if they are human.
Suggests they are
spent; it has been
raining until they
are empty. Dark
mood, sombre.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2016
Links
Poem 2 extract
Nature
Life
Tissue
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Comment
Title. Links to
paper and human
tissue. Idea of
fragility.
Something to do
with sadness?
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Comparing two poems - 'Winter Swans' and 'Tissue'
thinned by age
transparent with attention
Maps
Fine slips from grocery shops
paper kites
a grand design
with living tissue, raise a structure
paper ... turned into your skin
© www.teachit.co.uk 2016
26003
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