Leda and the Swan

Notes by William Fairbairn

Mythical Background behind the Ledean Body

Interested (and keen) students will, no doubt, dash off to read The Iliad to brush up on
the full background to Yeats superb poem. If you have less time, but a keen interest,
you may also enjoy Madeline Millers 2012 novel The Song of Achilles this has
recently been shortlisted for the Orange Prize and tells the story of The Iliad from the
point of view of Achilles lover Patroclus.

In the key Greek myth which inspired Yeats poem, Leda is seduced by Zeus
who visits her in the guise of a swan. Their union produces three eggs. One
doesnt hatch which could be representing metaphorical destruction, or a potent
force yet to come (cross reference The Second Coming); one produces two
(demi-god) children: Helen and Pollux these are assumed to be the children of
Zeus; and the last egg produces two (mortal) children assumed to be the
children of Ledas mortal husband King Tyndareus: Castor and Clytemnestra.
Pollux and Castor, although born from separate eggs, are often considered and
referenced as twins, including in their representation as the constellation Gemini.

Castor is mortally injured in battle, and Pollux, a demi-god, petitioned his father
Zeus to share his divinity with his brother; Zeus agreed as so both brothers were
granted a form of immortality as the constellation Gemini.

Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon (brother of King Meneleus married to Helen;

Helen of course runs off with Paris to Troy: this is the event which gives birth to
the Trojan War). Clytemnestra kills Meneleus when he returns from the Trojan war
along with his concubine Cassandra (cursed prophetess sister to
Paris/Troilus/Hector etc all are the children of Priam). This is partly on the basis
that Agamemnon killed her daughter as a sacrifice to the gods so that there would
be wind for the Greek armies to sail to Troy before the war had even started.

It is key to note that the overall permeating result from the rape of Leda is
destruction and death. The female Ledean bodies (Leda/Helen/Clytemnestra) all
ultimately provoke or inspire death, warfare or murder through their actions and
choices. If you run with this area of analysis into the Yeats poem, you can make
strong links to In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth, Among School Children and
Broken Dreams among others.

Historical Context to the poem Leda and the Swan

First Published in June 1924, because the editor of a political review asked [me]
for a poem. Yeats
 Yeats started writing the poem with respect to politics, perhaps representing the
fall and corruption of Ireland in parallel with Troy, but bird and lady took such
possession of the scene that all politics went out of it Yeats

Analysis

It is a hybrid of the traditional forms of the Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet

- Yeats rarely wrote these. Yet paradoxically the subject of the poem is highly
untraditional as the violent events are in stark contrast to the usual subject
discussed in sonnets: love.

The caesura that proceeds blow in line one emphasises the impact and surprise
felt by Leda, that is reiterated by the use of sudden.

Yeats creates ambiguity as to whether Leda consents. Her thighs are caressed
which reflects a more affectionate scene, and her thighs might be loosening
through choice and not by force. Yet Yeats also describes her breast as helpless
which implies she has no choice over what happens whether or not she is
rendered helpless by her lust remains one of the key points for debate.

A shudder in the loins engenders there/The broken wall, the burning roof
and tower/And Agamemnon dead.

This quotation makes clear that the effects of this rape ends with not only the
death of Agamemnon, but also the absolute destruction of Troy. It reiterates the
point (as discussed earlier on this page) that the outcome of the potential rape is
not merely one womans subjugation. If Leda did indeed consent to the union with
Zeus, then she is effectively the catalyst for horror this may be a reflection on the
actions of some of the women Yeats knew or Yeats may even be discussing the
consequences of his own actions. He often ponders if small decisions can later be
seen to herald horrendous consequences (Cross reference The Man and the
Echo). The consequences of one action are seen to unfold over decades of
violence and destruction. This poem can also be seen to represent Yeats
frustration with the decline of Ireland; perhaps the Irish were being metaphorically
raped by the English the destruction of culture etc rendered as a motif here by
the destruction of Troy.

As is typical with Petrarchan sonnets, after the volta, Yeats reflects on the actions
described in the first eight lines of the poem, and attempts to answer the questions
he set up. However, he still does not come to a conclusion; he leaves the reader
with the unanswerable question, Did she put on his knowledge with his power/
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Technical devices such as alliteration, [He holds her brute blood] iambic
pentameter, and the irregular distribution of sentences and caesura all contribute
towards making the effect of shock with respect to the subject matter. The irregular
meter that this irregular distribution creates is that it echoes the gasping and
throbbing pulsations of the rape by its irregularity, as the caesuras interrupt the
flow of the sentences, and the stresses pentameter do not always comply with the
natural word stresses. The line How can those terrified vague fingers push jars
 the rhythm of the pentameter when read aloud, and hence causes the
aforementioned effect.

The abstract terms used to describe the un-named swan [great wings dark webs
white rushand feathered glory] are in stark contrast to the concrete and tangible
terms used to describe Leda, [her loosening thighs her nape and her helpless
breast] which seem representative, factual and literal, and also present only one
reading. however when the concrete and abstract diffuse into each-other later on
in the poem when we see Leda described as having vague fingers and the
swan with tangible body parts [wings, beak and bill.] It is interesting to note that
the ways in which the two characters are described reflect the ambiguity and
conflict that Yeats presents.

The contrast in tenses used before and after the volta alter the immediacy of
particular events in the readers mind. The present tense of holds, push
loosening feel and lies before the volta make the events of the rape seem
immediate and vivid, whereas the past tenses of caught mastered and did
make the rhetorical questions seem more pensive, distant and retrospective.

The voices of the verbs used to describe Leda, and the swan are juxtaposing. The
swan engenders and holds actively, whereas Leda is carressed caught and
mastered. One could infer from this that Leda has no choice in her rape.