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Daniel Beachum

Mr. Bowman

ENG-112

February 3, 2020

Review of “Leda and the Swan”

W. B. Yeats’s poem “Leda and the Swan” illustrates a situation that is taking place

between a girl named Leda and Zeus the Greek god, Zeus has taken the form of a swan and raped

Leda and thus she will give birth to Hellen who indirectly started the trojan war. One of the

things that are intriguing about this poem is how Yeats uses every word that is within this poem

with a clear and powerful meaning that describes the event exceptionally well. Also, Yeats's

exceptional use of sentences that are both informative whiles at the same time lead to the reader

asking more questions is a great way to accomplish the desired storyline while simultaneously

allowing the reader to come up with there own interpretations of the poem. This poem is

interesting in particular because of how the story is set up with respect to the point of view that it

was written in. the main reason to write this paper is to look into the form that this poem is

written in and critique its style to better understand this poem.

The first thing to look into is how Yeats uses questions to make points as in the scenario

which follows, “How can those terrified vague fingers push the feathered glory from her

loosening thighs?” this question seems to be almost thought from within the mind of Leda as

Zeus overpowers her and continues to take advantage of her. Another example of this style of

writing that gives an understanding of certain perspectives through the use of questions is in the

line “Did she put on his knowledge with his power”? this statement poses a question of whether
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during the activity if the girl gained some of Zeus’s powers for a brief time. With this in mind, I

think that the way that Yeats used questions to portray different points of view gives this poem a

higher level of depth.

The second thing to consider is the use of gaps in between parts of thought in order to

build upon the story through the imagination of the reader. A good example of this is in the line

“A sudden blow: the great wings beating still” since between “sudden blow”, and “the great

wings” there is a pause that gives a hole in the story that can be field by interpretation of the

reader. Another example of this style is in the gap between “And how can body, laid in that

white rush, But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?” and “A shudder in the loins

engenders there”. This opening is more to show that time has passed and is almost self-

explanatory given the context that it is placed. Now with this in mind, this can be counted as a

stile that needs to be taken into consideration with this poem if it is being reviewed.

Thirdly, one of the aspects of the way this poem is lade out is that in the beginning, it

starts with telling the story in the present, however toward the end the focus shifts to events that

will happen in the future. Therefore, the poem is set up as to be in chronological order starting in

the middle of the rape and continuing all the way through up until the conscience of the actions

of Zeus is brought to completion. As a result, this is yet another part of the stile that is used by

Yeats throughout this work and needs to be taken into consideration when looking at this paper

for examination.

Fourthly, as with most papers written about fictional events, there is some number of true

events that give inspiration to the authors for their works. This poem is written to be a parallel to

real-life events that Yeats was trying to communicate through the use of fine art. “Yeats used this

theme of seduction, rape and resultant offspring as a metaphor for the relationship between
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Britain and Ireland. Britain being the swan (the mighty Zeus) and Ireland Leda (the helpless

victim).” (Spacey), in this way of viewing the poem the parallels between the real events and the

one in the story are clearly brought up with power since relating the rape of a girl to political

events that Yeats did not agree with can bring out a new way of thinking on that situation. With

all this being sed, the events that Yeats was going through had an impact on the things he wrote

about and how he wrote them and, in the end, led to a fine piece of poetry.

In conclusion, evaluating this poem by looking at Yeats use of words such as questions to

further the plot along, and his tendency of using holes in his paragraphs to allow the reader to

think for themselves gives more depth to the overall work, in addition, to the way that the story is

written and the order that the events proceed all work together to bring out a story that is both

clear and to the point, and lastly, with the story portrayed in this poem is a metaphor for real-life

events that the author was passionate about, it gives a new view to how this poem can be

interpreted. Therefore, critiquing this poem with the above categories brings a better

understanding of this poem.

Works Cited

Spacey, Andrew. “Analysis of Poem ‘Leda And The Swan’ By W.B.Yeats.” Owlcation,

Owlcation, 10 Jan. 2020, owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Leda-And-The-

Swan-By-WBYeats.

Yeats, William Butler. “Leda and the Swan by W. B. Yeats - Poems | Academy of American

Poets.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poem/leda-and-swan. Date

accessed January 26, 2020.