Next Section Character List Previous Section Poem Text How To Cite in MLA Format Romano, Via. William Butler Yeats poem Leda and the Swan is an awkward recreation of the Greek myth in which Zeus takes the form of a swan in order to seduce Leda. Will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. You can help us out by revising, improving and updatingĪfter you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Yeats suggests that through mating with a god, Leda is able to have a vision of the future and sees the horrible fate that will befall Clytemnestra, the daughter she has just conceived with Zeus before he 'indifferently' lets her go.

The second stanza focuses on the actual act of their mating and the violence of it, and the the third and final stanza focuses on the act of Leda getting pregnant. Yeats sonnet Leda and the Swan in the context of a widening gap between the sexual mores of earlier times and. The first stanza opens with Zeus, in swan form, attacking and subduing Leda so he can mate with her. Leda and the Swan is a short poem, but its force comes from the vital energies of the myth which Yeats refashions to engage his own preoccupations with time, politics and society. Refresh the page, check Medium ’s site status, or find. Yeats narrates the story of Leda when she was raped by the god Zeus in the form of a swan. Yeats’ Leda and the Swan: A Reading through Multiple Lenses by K C Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. William Butler Yeatss 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. Yeats, 1924) 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.

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Leda and the Swan by W.B. Yeats