"Leda and the Swan" by William Butler Yeats

Leda and the Swan William Butler Yeats 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. 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? A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead. 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? "Leda and the Swan" is a poem that centers and almost retells the story of the rape of Leda from Greek mythology in which a swan is disguised as Zeus. From the very beginning, we see that Yeats uses a synechdoche to illustrate the almost god like perspective of the swan. For example, "great wings" is a part of the swan that represents the whole. Not only this, we see another part representing a whole when Yeats claims "her thighs caressed/By the dark webs". The "dark webs" are representative of the swan's feet, and can be further connoted negatively because of the darkness description. It is also interesting to note the brutality of the rape when Yeats claims "helpless breast, yet it is still quite a seductive. Moving on to the next stanza, we see that the speaker describes Leda's fingers as "terrified". This is a prime example of personification used to emphasize the brutality of the rape in this greek mythology. In the very next line, the speaker uses the phrase "feathered glory". First of all, this can be seen as an allusion to the godliness of Zeus within the mythology. This is further exemplified through the denotation of "glory" which is a luminous ring or halo that could indicate an omnipotent figure. Moving on to the next line, the "white rush" represents the forced nature of the sexual act of the swan; however, Yeats seems to be sending us to different messages. White has the connotation of purity and holiness, yet the swan is preforming an horrific act. In addition, Leda seems to be able to "feel the strange heart beating" which indicates the feelings of excitement or mystery.It is also interesting to note that the speaker claims "And how can body..." not feel the way described above. The fact that Yeats is referring to any "body" shows the equality between man, women, or animal and the inability to stand against God. The next line describes a "shudder in the loins", which indicates the completion of such a sexual act and the impregnation of Leda. The baby that Leda eventually gives birth to is Troy, so it makes sense that Yeats speaks about the "the burning roof and tower" to allude to the eventual Trojan War. At the end of the poem, we find out that the swan is actually Zeus and that some of his knowledge might have been transferred to Leda through the sexual act.