W.B. Yeats' "Leda and the Swan"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that W.B. Yeats' poem "Leda and the Swan" is a dramatic depiction of Zeus' rape of Leda, the young woman who gave birth to Helen of Troy. The paper points out that these classical references make the sexual relationship of the swan and Leda seem full of portent, less like an ordinary perverse relationship between an animal and a human. The paper also explains that the meaning of the poem is that, with sexuality, everything changes, not simply the relationships of two people.

From the Paper:

"The act of sexuality is, of course, terrifying for Leda because it is unwilled--the act is caused by "a sudden blow" and she is later described as "staggering" and being "caught up" as well as caressed. Although both figures have breasts, and Zeus is feminized by having feathers and a breast, his beak is phallic and she is helpless. Zeus is characterized as a force of nature, an impersonal "white rush" of godlike power, just as Agamemnon and Troy will be caught up in a white rush of history."

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