Discuss Yeats’ presentation of violence in ‘Leda and the Swan’. In your answer, explore the effects of language, imagery and verse form and consider how this poem relates to others by Yeats. “Leda and the Swan” is a violent, sexually explicit poem with its plain diction, rhythmic vigor, and allusions to mystical ideas about the universe, the relationship of human and divine, and the cycles of history.
It can be seen as a poem about the way a single event is to be understood as part of a larger scheme; the result of the god’s assault on Leda is the birth of Helen of Troy, the subsequent destruction of early Greek civilization, and the beginning of the modern era. Yeats’s daring sonnet describes the details of a story from Greek mythologythe rape of Leda by the god Zeus in the form of a swan.
The contrast in tenses used before and after the volta alters the immediacy of the events described. The present tense of verbs such as ‘holds’ and ‘push’, before the volta make the events of the rape seem immediate and vivid, whereas the past tenses of ‘caught’ and ‘mastered’ make the rhetorical questions seem more pensive, distant and retrospective.
In addition technical devices such as alliteration, ‘he holds her’, iambic pentameter, and the irregular distribution of sentences and caesura all contribute towards the intensity and shock of the subject manner**. The random distribution echoes the gasping and throbbing pulsations of the rape by its irregularity and the caesuras interrupt the flow of the sentences furthering the intensity of the situation.
The Essay on Leda And The Swan 2
... of this adds to the poem’s disturbing nature. Overall, the violence of Leda and the Swan is used by Yeats to explore how a ... gave it a feeling of immediacy, the use of past tense after the volta (caught, mastered) and the rhetorical questions give ... a certain lack of violence in his portrayal of the rape, creating a somewhat disturbing representation of the myth, and suggesting ...
The chaotic tempo of the rape’s description contrasts with the sudden stop where ‘Agamemnon dead’ is left suspended in the air ending both the violence and the rape. Yeats wrote his poem in the traditional form of a Petrarchan sonnet. Yet, paradoxically the violent context of the poem in contrast to the usual subject of love in a sonnet is highly untraditional and thus comes across as shocking.
The first three words ‘A sudden blow:’ instantly portrays the forceful connection between Leda and Zeus. The caesura that proceeds ‘blow’ emphasizes this impact and the surprise felt by Leda, which is also reiterated by the use of ‘sudden’.
The power of the poem is reflected in its compression since it is a sonnet and the tight rhyme scheme controls the force. The first two quatrains*** dramatize the rape in a violent, physical manner that stresses Leda’s helplessness to resist the ‘white rush’ of the swan****.
However the following two questions suggest something more intimate and mysterious about the beating of the ‘strange heart’ felt by Leda in contrast with the mere physical intimacy between the ‘dark webs’ of Zeus and the ‘helpless breast’ of Leda expressed previously.
This foreshadows the change of tone after the Volta, and thus the second half of the poem possibly reveals what Leda might have thought and felt: she was ‘mastered’, experiencing the ‘power’ of Zeus and also whether she shared ‘his knowledge’ while the intimacy lasted. Here, Yeats suggests that Leda shared his knowledge of all the historical implications of the event and how it would lead to the destruction of Troy.
Yeats is ambiguous about the relationship between violence, power and knowledge in these closing lines. The abstract terms used to describe the un-named swan [‘great wings’ ‘dark webs’ ‘white rush’and ‘feathered glory’] are in stark contrast to the concrete and tangible terms used to describe Leda, [‘her loosening thighs’ ‘her nape’ and ‘her helpless breast’] which seem representative, factual and literal, and also present only one reading.
however when the concrete and abstract diffuse into each-other later on in the poem – when we see Leda described as having ‘vague fingers’ and the swan with tangible body parts [‘wings’, ‘beak’ and ‘bill’.] It is interesting to note that the ways in which the two characters are described reflect the ambiguity and conflict that Yeats presents.
The Term Paper on Yeats Burns And Wordsworth Poems
In this assignment I will compare and contrast three poems based on the theme of love. I will look at He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by W. B Yeats, Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose and the Lucy Poems by Wordsworth. I will focus on each poets tradition and culture, the poets use of language and the similarities and differences between each poem. I will conclude the assignment with my personal ...
Yeats creates ambiguity as to whether Leda consents. Her thighs are ‘caressed’ which reflects a more affectionate scene, and her ‘thighs’ might be ‘loosening’ through choice and not by force. yet Yeats also describes her ‘breast’ as ‘helpless’ which implies She has no choice over what happens – whether or not she is rendered ‘helpless’ by her lust remains one of the key points for debate. ‘A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead.’ This quotation makes clear that the effects of this rape ends with not only the death of Agamemnon, but also the absolute destruction of Troy. It reiterates the point (as discussed earlier on this page) that the outcome of the potential rape is not merely one woman’s ‘subjugation’.
If Leda did indeed consent to the union with Zeus, then she is effectively the catalyst for horror – this may be a reflection on the actions of some of the women Yeats knew or Yeats may even be discussing the consequences of his own actions. He often ponders if small decisions can later be seen to herald horrendous consequences (Cross reference ‘The Man and the Echo’).
The consequences of one action are seen to unfold over decades of violence and destruction.
This poem can also be seen to represent Yeats’ frustration with the decline of Ireland; perhaps the Irish were being ‘metaphorically’ raped by the English – the destruction of culture etc rendered as a motif here by the destruction of Troy. A sudden blow: the great wings beating still”, brings the reader dramatically into the fray.
There is a blow of some kind, possibly a striking blow, and the sound of large wings beating in the air. The reader is startled by the blow, and after having only partially absorbed the shock of it, hears the whoosh of beating wings. The reader does not know where the assault comes from or to who the wings belong to.
The reader is pulled into the remainder of the stanza, “Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed/ By dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, / He holds her helpless breast upon his breast” (lines 2-4) without a moment of reflection to spare.
The Term Paper on On Rape and Responsibility
Throughout the course of Disgrace, Coetzee attempts to juxtapose the rape of Melanie with that of Lucy. By analyzing the actions of David Lurie, Lucy and Petrus, it becomes apparent that there is a dynamometric sense of responsibility among victims and abusers. Coetzee attempts to demonstrate that rape is more than a gendered based crime, that social class, and ethnicity also play roles in ...
There is beating, staggering, caressing, catching, and holding in a whirl so fast the reader doesn’t have time to prepare a response to the attack. The reader endures the attack along with Leda, barely able to visualize the swirl of motion crowded in the first four lines.
William Butler Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan” retells the story from Greek mythology of the rape of a girl named Leda by Zeus, the most powerful of the Greek gods. The “twist” of the story is that Zeus is disguised as a swan. Yeats presents this tale in a relatively graphic way, so modern readers may find the language disturbing. Stories about sex with animals were fairly common in classical societies like Ancient Greece, and the myth of Leda and the swan was once well known.
