Violence In Leda and the swan by W.B.Yeats
“Leda and the Swan” is one of the most well known poems by Yeats, although it’s controversy as to what really happens during the lines of this sonnet. There are many different ways as to how one can approach the interpretation of the poem, is it influenced by Yeats’ own life, in which case he puts all his frustration towards Maud Gonne into words, or is it a poem about power, or about politics?
I have deliberately chosen not to take into consideration the political and social background of Ireland at that time. This, because I prefer to restrain my analysis to the poem itself, and how one could interpret its proper meaning. As a consequence, it is interesting and important to remember that one of Yeats’ many interests was Greek mythology, more precisely issues linked to Helen of Troy. In this poem, Yeats shows his vision of how Leda got pregnant by Zeus who was disguised as a swan when he raped her. This act gave birth to two eggs, and one of them was to become Helen of Troy. It is her birth that was the real cause of the Trojan War and Agamemnon’s death.
To write this poem Yeats was inspired by a carving, a Hellenistic bas-relief reproduced in Elie Faure's History of Art (1921) , which he owned. His description of what happens in the poem concurs with this carving. This is a strong poem, where the image of a woman can be seen as dirtied, dehumanised, and shameful, the girl was not only raped in a ‘normal way’, but it was an animal that carried out the act. Still, Yeats describes what happened in such a way that one wonders if at some point, Leda’s body actually is led by lust, and puts back her fear, or if she is really trying to fight back, as we will see further on, in...
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...me, he does play on provocation, as when the poem was written Gaelic tradition included a strong involvement of the catholic church both in law making, and in morality. There were censorship everywhere, in books, films, and to show how far it went, we can add that even contraception and divorce was made illegal! Yeats was against all this, and it can be felt in his poem, as it touches pornography, and female purity.
Bibliography:
Cullingford Elizabeth, Gender and history in Yeats’ love poetry, New York: Syracuse
Hargrove, Nancy D., “Aesthetic Distance in Yeast’s ‘Leda and the Swan,’” in Arizona Quarterly, Vol. 39, 1983
Scott C. Holstad, California State University, Long Beach, Yeast’s 'Leda and the Swan': Psycho-Sexual Therapy in Action Univ.Press
W.B.Yeats, Selected poems, Penguin Modern Classics
www.sparknotes.com
The poem Leda and the Swan is about the rape of Leda committed by Zeus in disguise as a swan. Because of what they have done, it sets history in motion. Thus, it's fated that Helen will launch the war of a thousand ships, how Troy will fall, and Agamemnon will be murdered,...etc.
The second stanza is filled with three heroes from the Easter Rising, yet W.B. Yeats begins to depict them as unlikable people. He describes the heroine of the poem “in ignorant good-will”, arguing so much “her voice grew shrill”. After he highlights all the flaws of the heroine, he acquires a more respectful tone, stating, “What voice more sweet than hers.” Yeats uses her voice as a symbol of her life— rich, easy, and privileged until her involvement in the rebellion. The once sweet voice turns shrill, suggesting that she risked her prosperous life for a life of sacrifice and rebellion for Ireland.
The Virgin and the Whore: An Analysis of Keats’s Madeline in “The Eve of Saint Agnes”
William Yeats is deliberated to be among the best bards in the 20th era. He was an Anglo-Irish protestant, the group that had control over the every life aspect of Ireland for almost the whole of the seventeenth era. Associates of this group deliberated themselves to be the English menfolk but sired in Ireland. However, Yeats was a loyal affirmer of his Irish ethnicity, and in all his deeds, he had to respect it. Even after living in America for almost fourteen years, he still had a home back in Ireland, and most of his poems maintained an Irish culture, legends and heroes. Therefore, Yeats gained a significant praise for writing some of the most exemplary poetry in modern history
In these lines from "All Things can Tempt Me" (40, 1-5), Yeats defines the limitations of the poet concerning his role in present time. These "temptations" (his love for the woman, Maude Gonne, and his desire to advance the Irish Cultural Nationalist movement) provide Yeats with the foundation upon which he identifies his own limitations. In his love poetry, he not only expresses his love for Gonne, he uses his verse to influence her feelings, attempting to gain her love and understanding. In regard to the Nationalists, he incorporates traditional Irish characters, such as Fergus and the Druids, to create an Irish mythology and thereby foster a national Irish identity. After the division of the Cultural Nationalists, Yeats feels left behind by the movement and disillusioned with their violent, "foolish" methods. He is also repeatedly rejected by Gonne. These efforts to instigate change through poetry both fail, bringing the function of the poet and his poetry into question. If these unfruitful poems tempt him from his ?craft of verse,? then what is the true nature verse and why is it a ?toil? for the poet? Also, if Yeats cannot use poetry to influence the world around him, then what is his role as a poet?
In Greek mythology, Leda, a Spartan queen, was so beautiful that Zeus, ruler of the gods, decided he must have her. Since immortals usually did not present themselves to humankind in their divine forms, Zeus changed himself into a great swan and in that shape ravished the helpless girl (Carey 58-59). Both William Butler Yeats and Mona Van Duyn base their poems "Leda and the Swan" and "Leda," respectively, on this story of a "mystic marriage." Yeats' focus on the sexual act itself, along with his allusions to Leda's progeny, manifest a grave and terrifying tone. While he raises Leda to a status similar to that of Mary, mother of Jesus, Van Duyn portrays Leda as a universal mother. By making both figures, Leda and Zeus, ordinary, she gives a "surprising twist" (Greiner 337) to the original myth, emphasized by her witty tone. In addition, whereas Yeats suggests that Leda has gained something from her encounter with Zeus, Van Duyn asserts that she has gained nothing, portraying women in general as primarily objects of men's satisfaction.
...otism is established in a seemingly simple testament to a dead soldier. What better way to honor the dead than to personify Lady Ireland through his character! The passion that Yeats subconsciously incorporates into his poem equals that of his love for Ireland. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death begins on a low and desperate note, but reaches its’ climax upon Gregory answering Ireland’s call, and ends by, essentially, posing a question to the reader. ‘As a collective people, which side of the teeter-totter do we belong?’ He leaves his hero (Gregory) hanging in the balance of an important national question. The poem may be about Yeats’ character foreseeing his death, but the fact remains: he is in the act of ‘foreseeing,’ he is not dead yet…and neither is Ireland.
In “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop” Yeats employs two themes, the theme of good versus evil, and the theme of sexuality. He conveys the theme of good versus evil through the Bishop’s statements in the first stanza, as well as J...
In the first stanza the speaker standing before an ancient Grecian urn, addresses the urn, preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. This is where Keats first introduces the theme of eternal innocence and beauty with the reference to the “unvarnished bride of quietness”(Keats). Because she has not yet engaged in sexual actions, the urn portrays the bride in this state, and she will remain like so forever. Also in the first stanza he examines the picture of the “mad pursuit,” and wonders what the actual story is behind the picture. He looks at a picture that seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of woman and wonders what they could be doing. “What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and trimbels? What wild ecstasy”(Keats). Of course, the urn can never tell him the whos, whats, and whens of the story it depicts. As the stanza, slowly leads the reader to the series of questions that are asked. The tone of the poem becomes exciting and breathless until it reaches the ultimatum, “wild ecstasy”(Keats). “The ecstasy brings together the pursuit and the music, the human and the superhuman, and, by conveying an impression of exquisite sense-spirit intensity, leads us to the fine edge between mortal and immortal. Where passion is so intense that it refines itself into the essence of ecstasy, which is without passion”(Bate117). Ecstasy is therefore the end of the feelings the poem has lead to reader to feel. Since the urn does not depict anything past the chase itself, the situation is purely innocent with beauty again complying with the theme of eternal innocence and beauty.
Yeats' somber turn towards the end of the poem is also indicative of what makes fate sometimes tragic: its unpredictability. Similar to the way Adam was unaware of the consequences of eating the forbidden apple, a poet does not know how good, or bad, a poem will be until it is finished. Similar to the fleeting notion of beauty, love can easily fade. The fact that all these endeavors could be rewarding makes the sudden loss an unbearable, and therefore, "tragic" fate.
The simplicity of the rhyme scheme which is found in both poems, which creates the steady rhythm of the poem, contribute to the creation of a calm atmosphere, a certain calm in the face of death. While Shakespeare’s speaker seems more emotional, and Yeats’s more explanatory in tone, they both express a readiness to greet death. However different in style and context, both poems serve the same purpose for their speakers, an acceptance of death, Yeats’s acceptance of death as consequence of war and Shakespeare’s acceptance of death as a result of unrequited love.
As the poem can be interpreted in numerous ways, and therefore, its message has a flexibility that enables its readers to mould it’s meaning to befit them. Thus, allowing its messages to be applicable to anyone, regardless of demographic. For example, the poem can also be interpreted by Christians as man’s decaying interest of Christian ideologies and the supposed products of this decay. A view held by plenty of older Christians and a important view for Christian youth to acquire in order to cement their beliefs. Though the message conveyed by Yeats that can be applicable to all contemporary youth, is that depravity and tension arouses conflict. And when we look forward, we feel our anxiety stir at the inevitable - at the international conflict embedded in humanities future. Why will this conflict occur? Because if relations between ‘super-powers’ are withered now, how would it cope though overpopulation, the depletion of resources and other problems ever nation has to overcome? How can we be sure that these super-powers won’t value land, and resources such as oil over their populations in order to maintain their economic and political power? We don’t. This is why a third world war is indeed probable, and why this poem’s core message is still relevant to all
...tember 1913, there were only a few people that made huge sacrifices for independence in their country while others had contradicted their efforts and only focused on themselves. It was seen as if the heroes died in vain. In Easter 1916, the reader is able to notice a change in the people’s views and see that they are now the ones who are fighting for Ireland’s independence in honor of their previous leaders. The change Yeats talks about is that the result of the 1916 rising and the execution of some of its leaders. In turn the country revolted into the War of Independence. The Free State resulted in dividing the country both geographically and passionately along with those who had accepted the Free State and those who didn’t.
... in all of Yeats poems of, “When you are Old” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” “The Wild Swans at Coole” “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium” in which Yeats uses these symbols to convey his message to the reader or listener. Symbolism is a big part of the lives of all of us, and Yeats understood that concept and put it into all of his poetry. Whether it was Yeats using the symbol of a sailing ship to represent death coming, or his use of the swan bird to also represent pending death. Yeats also uses a book to describe his love life and a falcon and his falconer to represent the lost faith in the society we lived in. However, we may not know it, but we too use symbols throughout our lives. Whether it be a cross necklace we wear, or a certain brand of shoe or shirt or sock we wear, symbolism plays a large part in our lives, and Yeats captured that in his poems.
This refrain enforces his disgust at the type of money hungry people that the Irish have become. In the third and fourth stanza, however, Yeats completely changes the tone of his poetry. He praises the romantics of Irish history, such as Rob...