William Butler Yeats

For my last post, I am going to focus on William Butler Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan.” Noted beneath the poem, it says that “In Greek mythology, Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan and raped her; Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra were their offspring.” The poem describes the rape of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan vividly and leaves me with a chilling feeling. The poem begins abruptly with, “A sudden blow: the great wings beating still / Above the staggering girl” (ln 1-2). Immediately the reader is taken to the scene of the rape and the tension which lies between the swan and the frightened girl. The swan is depicted as hovering above her showing his total control over the situation and the girl. Even though swans are usually associated with happiness and bright images, in this poem, the swan seems to have a darker image surrounding it. His feet are described as “dark webs” and he holds her neck in his bill. The girl is described as “helpless,” “terrified,” and “staggering.” The swan obviously overpowers her. The second stanza consists of two rhetorical questions. He asks:

“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?” (5-8).

Compared to Zeus, ruler of Gods, Leda is merely a mortal who has no power over the situation. How could her fingers ever resist the swan’s power when she is just a mortal? The following stanza shows the consequences of this act of rape. Leda becomes impregnated by Zeus in the swan form and gives birth to Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Helen of Troy eventually leads to the fall of Troy and a beginning of a new era. He describes, “A shudder in the loins engenders there / The broken wall, the burning roof and tower / And Agamemnon dead. He is referencing the fall of Troy and the death of Helen’s husband, all bad events triggered by the rape described.

The last stanza attempts to get inside Lida’s mind at the time of the raping. It asks, “Did she put on his knowledge with his power / Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?” (14-15). It is asking whether she could see what the swan saw as he was raping her. She was just a pawn in the beginning of a new era. At the time of the raping, she did not realize all that would come from it and how significant it really was. She was too caught up and “mastered by the brute blood of the air” to ever know the purpose. I enjoyed reading this poem because of the striking images and shocking nature of the poem. Such a horrible and terrifying act leads to even more terrible acts. The poem also has a feeling of mystery to it since the names of the two mentioned in the title are never mentioned in the poem. Images of them are painted though throughout helping to further connect the reader with the story.