William Butler Yeats

For my final blog post, I have decided to focus on William Butler Yeats' poem Leda and the Swan. In this poem, Yeats is retelling a story from Greek mythology, the rape of Leda by the god, Zeus, who comes in the form of a swan. The poem describes this act with exceptional vivid language, as it begins rather abruptly:

"A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast"(1125).

This poem is interesting in that, swans are usually conveyed to represent calm and happy features. In this situation, the swan represents the exact opposite. Perhaps, Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan to fool her to believe he was harmless, when his intentions were quite hostile. Leda is portrayed as helpless under the great wings of the "dark" swan. The swan has complete control over the incredibly frightened girl. The sensory impact of the poem lies in Yeat's language as he uses ideal descriptions to contrast Leda's weakness and helplessness ("staggering", "helpless", "caressed", "terrified") with the powerful action of the massive swan ("beating", "shudder", "mastered", "burning"). The following stanza contains two rhetorical questions:

"How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?"(1125).

Yeats uncovers that although this is such a bizarre phenomenon of Leda's rape by a swan, Leda is most obviously helpless because she is a mortal being raped by what is really an immortal, the ruler of all gods - Zeus. Of course she will be helpless in such a situation. The next stanza outlines the consequences of this act, which was the impregnation of Leda to bear Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Helen of Troy eventually brought about the Trojan War: "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower and Agamemnon dead"(1126). This was the ultimate consequence of the rape. This war's lasting impact was the end of the mythological era and the birth of modern history. In the final stanza, Yeats seeks to explore Leda's thoughts on the situation as he writes:

"Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?"(1126).

Yeats' seems astounded by the idea that Leda was simply a pawn in the plan Zeus had planned so perfectly. She had no idea of her ultimate significance in the course of history, or that she would be the one to ultimately birth the modern world as a result of this horrific experience. At the time of the raping, she was so incredibly "caught up" in the horror of the situation that her place in history could have seemed other-worldly. The act done to her would eventually lead to other horrible acts like the fall of Troy and the murder of a king. Leda was so unaware of his, a feature which Yeats seems to deeply implore as he vividly connects his readers with the shocking situation and its extensive consequences.