Criticism In William Butler Yeats's Leda And The Swan

What is a king to a god? Even if that god has committed unspeakable acts? Leda and the Swan is a poem that causes a lot controversy; some people feel that Zeus raped Leda where as others feel that she was seduced. William Butler Yeats officially published this poem in 1928. He was known as one of the world’s greatest authors of his time.

Yeats was born in Sandymount, Republic of Ireland on June 13,1865 and lived to be 74 years old. He was very proud of his Irish nationality and “maintained his cultural roots, featuring Irish legends and heroes in many of his poems and plays.” ("William Butler Yeats"). He moved from Ireland to English for an extended amount of time, but later returned to Ireland after the “Easter Rising, which was an unsuccessful, six-day armed rebellion of Irish republicans against the British in Dublin.” (“William Butler Yeats”) Yeats decided to return to Ireland and live out the rest of his days with his wife.

He first became a published writer in 1885 when a piece of poetry that appeared in the Dublin University Review. After being first published he spent time reviewing other books published in Ireland. In 1890 he joined a secret society known as Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was a group that practiced ritual magic, “the society offered instruction and initiation in a series of ten levels, the three highest of which were unattainable except by magi...” ("William Butler Yeats").

Later on in his life Yeats and his wife began taking part in something known as automatic writing, “writing produced without conscious intention as if of telepathic or spiritualistic origin.” (“Automatic Writing”). Together they produced over 4,000 pages of writing. Yeats read through all of these documents and was inspired to...

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...er than what it happening as it is read. The reader is aware of how Leda feels even though you aren’t directly hearing her thoughts; they are inferred in the description. The reader understands the writing is in 3rd person because the narrator does not directly have a role in the poem other than talking about that is going on between Leda and Zeus.

We will never have an answer to if the outcome of the Trojan War was positive or negative but I believe after analyzing the poem and really looking at the words, style, images, and words I can say that I believe Zeus raped Leda. The reoccurring use of negative words really solidifies what happened between them As well as the pictures that Yeats produces throughout his poem. Swans are typically portrayed as graceful and beautiful birds, however in this poem it portrays the complete opposite of what they would symbolize.