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Leda and the Swan | Poem Summary and Analysis

Updated: 3 days ago

Leda and the Swan is a poem that recounts the story of the rape of Leda by Zeus. In the Greek tale, Zeus who was famous for being a God who lusted after dozens of women besides his wife Hera, took a liking to Leda. 


He came up with the clever idea of pursuing Leda without his jealous wife knowing by transforming into a swan. This eventually leads to Leda being raped or seduced (depending on the interpretation of the tale) by Zeus and giving birth to Polydeuces and Helen, who later becomes the famed Helen of Troy or "the face that launched a thousand ships.

A copy of Michelangelo's Leda and the Swan
A copy of Michelangelo's Leda and the Swan (1530)

There have been various interpretations of the myth. Most artistic depictions from the Greek-Roman era, Renaissance, and later periods portray the event as consensual and erotic. A fewer number of them portray it as rape.


Yeats’ poem falls in the latter category. The poem is written fully from the perspective of Leda and seems to suggest that the violent act was responsible for breeding a chain of even more violent historical events. 


1. The full text of the poem 

Yeats, “Leda and the Swan” (1923):


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 [5]

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 [10]

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? [15]


2. Summary of “Leda and the Swan” 

The poem is divided into four stanzas, with the last stanza made to appear as if it was broken off halfway through in the third stanza. In the first stanza, Yeats gives an account of the initial assault. It is clearly described as a sexual assault, where Leda has no consent. 


The very first phrase in the poem is “A sudden blow.” Leda is partly described as resisting in words like “staggering girl” (Line 2). Presumably, she staggers because she is trying to escape. In Stanza 2, we get a description of what Leda is feeling while she lies still and is forcefully raped by Zeus. Significantly, she can feel Zeus’ “strange heart beating where it lies.” 


Stanza 3 describes the conception of Helen of Troy and all that comes after it. “The broken wall” refers to the fall of Troy, which occurred after Helen was abducted by Paris — a prince of Troy.  “Agamemnon dead” also shows how even the most important Greek leader Agamemnon after defeating Troy does not live long enough to enjoy victory. 


Stanza 4 brings us back to the implications of Stanza 2. Yeats wonders whether or not a mere mortal like Leda was able to absorb some of the God’s power and envisage the momentous history that this rape would lead to. We see this in Lines 14-15:


Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?


This raises interesting and controversial questions about the possibility of the conquered being "empowered" by violent encounters with the conqueror.


3. Biographical-historical background 

"Leda and the Swan" is a famous theme in ancient, premodern, and modern art and literature. It is based on the Greek myth of the name. It is linked to the birth of the beautiful Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships and who was responsible for the ten-year-long Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans after she was abducted from her husband — the Greek king Menelaus — by the Trojan prince Paris.  


She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda — the wife of the king of Sparta, Tyndareus. According to Greek mythology, Leda had seven children divided between two fathers  — the mortal Tyndareus and the king of the Gods, Zeus.  Castor, Timandra, Philonoe, Phoebe, and Clytemnestra were fathered by Tyndareus, and Helen and Polydeuces by Zeus. 


Helen was born from an egg after Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduced/raped Leda and impregnated her with Helen. There are alternative explanations to Helen’s origins. Another myth explains that Helen’s mother was a Goddess named Nemesis. The story goes that Zeus, disguised as a swan, copulated with Nemesis while she was disguised as a goose, giving birth to an egg. 


Leda takes custody of the egg after it was given to her by a shepherd until Helen is hatched and she becomes Helen’s adoptive mother. However, the most popular version by far is the rape/seduction of Leda by Zeus. Zeus takes on the guise of a swan and feigns fleeing from an eagle to seek help from Leda, only to forcefully rape her. This sexual encounter gives birth to Helen. 


The subject has been a popular theme throughout Western history. Throughout these periods, the sexual encounter is portrayed either as erotic and consensual or forceful sexual assault. For example, famous classical paintings of Leda and the Swan have been made by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, and Delacroix.

Leda and the Swan. Relief from Argos, Greece, 50 - 100 CE
A non-erotic and violent depiction of Leda and the Swan. Relief from Argos, Greece, 50 - 100 CE

In poetry, Leda has been featured in Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" (1590) and in W. B. Yeats' poem "Leda and the Swan" (1923). While most depictions portray the act as erotic and consensual, Yeat’s poem portrays it as a decidedly violent act. 


Some have claimed that Yeats was depicting the violent colonial relationship between Great Britain and Ireland. The poem, after all, was written during the conflict between Ireland and England, with Ireland fighting for independence. In this light, Helen would represent Ireland as the victim of rape and England would be the brute God violating and victimizing Ireland.


4. Themes

The themes of “Leda and the Swan” are complex. The poem describes an act of brutish sexual violence, which is in and of itself an important topic. In addition, it has implications in terms of the nature of the power relations between the conqueror and the conquered. 


We could say that the main themes of the poem include 1. The nature of sexual violence and 2. History and fate. 


i. Sexual violence. The poem is unambiguous in portraying Leda as a victim of rape and sexual assault that she does not consent to. The first stanza makes that abundantly clear with words like blow, staggering girl, and helpless


However, things get more interesting in the second stanza: 


How can those terrified vague fingers push [5]

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?


These lines have been interpreted as Leda being portrayed by Yeats as enjoying the sex. Words like “feathered glory” and “loosening thighs,” it has been said point to Leda’s arousal or acquiesence to the violent act. 


This is a misinterpretation. Feathered glory can be simply seen as a “fitting” description for Zeus, king of the Gods. Loosening thighs is a matter-of-fact description of a sexual act. Even a forced sexual act would entail this description. More importantly, Line 5 makes it clear that Leda was “terrified.”


Her fingers being described as terrified and vague more likely than not suggests her uncertainty of action in the midst of violent assault. Ironically, this criticism of the poem as Yeats portraying Leda as “enjoying it” is reminiscent of outdated definitions of rape. These definitions of rape depend on how much the woman protested.


By that standard, a woman who fights back hard against the rapist is a victim, whereas those who resist less are "acquiescent." Yeats seems to be criticized for not having Leda protest more. It's hard to understand how a mere mortal woman could protest against a giant bird-man-god with her slender neck in his sharp beak.


If Yeats portrays the act of sexual violence so explicitly in the first stanza, why should there be any ambiguity as to whether or not there was consent based on the second stanza? However, what is worth noting are Lines 7–8:


And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?


Here, Yeats is describing a kind of strange and divine communion between a God and a human being, which he provides a full explanation of in the last stanza. In the third stanza, Yeats provides a concise description of the historical event that the rape of Leda gave birth to — that is, the Trojan War and all its tragic consequences. 


ii.  Fate and history. This introduces philosophical questions about the role that humans and civilizations play in their own history. Do they have any power, or are they simply the victim of the Gods and fate?


In that regard, Helen presents fragile human nature and Zeuse represents the powerful and fateful historical circumstances that they have no control over, but which can decide their fate nevertheless. 


This interpretation can be expanded to include colonial relationships between the colonial power and the colonized. For example, the poem, as explained earlier, has been described as an analogy of the colonial relationship between Yeats’ Ireland and England.  


5. Rhetorical analysis

Our rhetorical analysis of the poem will begin with its form and meter. The poem is written in regular meter and rhymes. The poem is 14 lines, and its rhyming scheme is ABAB CDCD EFGEFG. The poem maintains a 14-line rhyming scheme over 15 lines by breaking the eleventh line in half. 


The break in the line seems to suggest the new idea being presented by Yeats — the idea that Helen’s rape may have allowed her to share the divine foresight and knowledge of the God who raped her. 


Allusion is the most obvious rhetorical device used in the poem. The entire poem alludes to the Greek myth of the rape of Leda. Another feature of the poem is how efficient it is in its description and imagery. The rape of Leda is described in four lines in the first stanza. The entire history of the Trojan War is described in three lines in the third stanza, using isocolon, that is parallel structure:


The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead


Isocolon is used to great effect throughout the poem. It is the main strategy used by the poet in providing a terse and concise description of Leda's assault. For example, the first stanza is a single sentence made up of three isocolonic phrases. He also makes use of erotema or rhetorical questions. The entire second stanza is nothing more than two rhetorical questions.


It is quite appropriate that rhetorical questions are used here. Rhetorical questions are typically used to ask questions for which there are obvious answers. But here Yeats is doing more than that. He is after all venturing into dangerous terrritory. He is a man imagining what it is like for a woman to be raped. Perhaps, the rhetorical question is a mark of caution being used to show that as a man he could never be certain of the perspective that he presents.


The last sentence of the poem also ends in a rhetorical question. The question mark at the end also indicates the uncertainty of ever knowing the mysteries associated with a God coming in union with a mortal and the resultant consequences.


Yeats’ poem is a surprisingly feminist perspective written by a man. Perhaps, it is true that Yeats saw in the rape of Leda the subjugation of his own country Ireland, and that enabled him to sympathize so well with Leda’s perspective. 


The poet makes it clear that Leda was a victim of sexual assault. Furthermore, he sees no need to elaborate on that obvious fact or to prove Leda’s innocence by showing her engaging in valiant resistance against the “feathered glory” of the brute blood of the air. 

 

Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, November 7). Leda and the Swan | Poem Summary and Analysis. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/leda-and-the-swan-poem-summary-and-analysis


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