W.B.Yeats And Leda And The Swan Essay, Research Paper
W.B.Yeats and Leda and the Swan
Given the uneven narratives brought to us by Greek mythology, one could really good conceive of the narratives holding been unearthed from some old-timer tabloid magazine. In the instance of Leda, topic of W. B. Yeats & # 8217 ; poem & # 8220 ; Leda and the Swan, & # 8221 ; the streamer headline may hold run as follows: & # 8220 ; WOMAN IMPREGNATED BY SWAN, FOUR CHILDREN HATCH FROM EGGS & # 8221 ; . Kind of brings new intending to the phrase & # 8220 ; love nest, & # 8221 ; doesn & # 8217 ; t it? All jesting aside, the myth of Leda and the swan features Zeus ( most powerful among the Greek Gods ) coming down to earth in the signifier of a swan to court Leda, married woman of Tyndareus. She winds up giving birth to four kids, two person ( Castor and Clytemnestra ) and two immortal ( Polydeuces and Helen ) . Yeats & # 8217 ; poem focuses non on the monumental events that Leda & # 8217 ; s offspring went on to see ( and cause ) , but instead on the minute of the meeting of adult female and winged one.
As for the classical fabulous history of Leda and Zeus, Carlos Parada & # 8217 ; s Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology tells us that Zeus, in swan signifier, joined with Leda, on the same dark that her hubby had. Zeus & # 8217 ; s kids, Polydeuces and Helen, were born from an egg laid by Leda and Tyndareus & # 8217 ; kids were Castor and Clytemnestra. However, some say that Helen was a girl of Nemesis and Zeus and brought ( in egg signifier ) to Leda by a shepherd. When the egg hatched, Leda brought her up. Legends besides say that Leda died of shame for her girl Helen. As an aside, Castor and Polydeuces were besides known as Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini.
The first quatrain of Yeats & # 8217 ; work describes the initial brush between adult female and bird. The swan, usually a symbol of beauty, is here depicted as beastly, keeping Leda & # 8217 ; s scruff ( back of the cervix ) with his measure, and coercing himself on her. Yet, paradoxically, the beastly swan is besides stamp, the webs of his wings fondling her thighs. This is besides a factor in the following stanza
Quatrain two discoveries Leda possibly get downing to give to the Zeus-swan, because of the swan & # 8217 ; s beauty more than anything else. We see an interior battle as Leda wants to force away the bird, but is stopped by its & # 8220 ; feathered glorification & # 8221 ; ( 6 ) . Its & # 8220 ; unusual bosom whipping where it lies & # 8221 ; ( 8 ) fascinates her, this feathered organic structure pressed against her ain. The talker invites our apprehensiveness with his inquiries. & # 8220 ; How can & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; we are asked, Leda refuse this god-bird? What about the animal entrances her to such an extent that she can non convey herself to contend against it?
The first half of the six is a brief flash of the hereafter, but as of yet, we, the readers are unsure whether it is seen by Leda herself, or presented merely to us. Is the & # 8220 ; frisson & # 8221 ; ( 9 ) a frisson of rapture or a frisson at the force of the complete devastation this brotherhood will breed? We witness the autumn of Troy, and the decease of Leda & # 8217 ; s conserve & # 8217 ; s brother, Agamemnon1. Agamemnon was really killed by Leda & # 8217 ; s mortal girl, Clytemnestra ( in a bathing tub, no lupus erythematosus ) . All this is guaranteed by the flood tide of the swan and Leda, the bound kids, their destined workss.
The concluding half of the six leaves us inquiring if it was, in fact, Leda who saw these visions, and attempts to offer some account for the possibility. The reader is asked if, before the Zeus-swan released her, she received some kind of psychic nexus to the fate of two of her kids, the mortal girl of her hubby Tyndareus ( Clytemnestra ) , and the immortal girl of Zeus ( Helen ) . We are left inquiring if Leda knew the fates of the kids that had been set into gesture with Zeus & # 8217 ; colza of her.
Writing the verse form in a Petrarchan sonnet, Yeats sets a tone from the first three words: & # 8220 ; A sudden blow & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) . Immediately, we are emotionally involved in the verse form. His words indicate to the readers how all of a sudden and out of the blue the colza of Leda Begins. Yeats writes in the octave the events prior to the brotherhood of Zeus and Leda, and the in six the resulting events and visions of them. Though non instantly obvious due, in portion, to the flooring facet of the capable affair and beauty of Yeats & # 8217 ; linguistic communication, we can see that the verse form does so hold a rhyme strategy, following the ababcdcd efgefg form.
In the octave, Yeats creates an image of clip about standing still, with all these events of great magnitude go oning to Leda. The reader may about see the scen
vitamin E as a series of still photographs. The immediate submergence into the action puts the reader in a similar place to Leda, fighting to do sense of what is happening, what is assailing our senses. The initial bustle of activity, queerly, seems both shockingly existent and slightly muted, as though we were watching ourselves from a distance. The immediateness of the state of affairs, nevertheless, remains.
Yeats sets the tone of the verse form by contrasting the beauty and strength of the swan ; & # 8220 ; great wings & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) , & # 8220 ; feathered glorification & # 8221 ; ( 6 ) , & # 8220 ; beastly blood of the air & # 8221 ; ( 11 ) , & # 8220 ; apathetic & # 8221 ; ( 13 ) , with the impotence of Leda ; & # 8220 ; reeling & # 8221 ; ( 2 ) , & # 8220 ; helpless & # 8221 ; ( 4 ) , & # 8220 ; terrified & # 8221 ; ( 5 ) , being & # 8220 ; mastered by & # 8221 ; Zeus ( 11 ) . There is besides a subject that runs through the verse form, one of fate. Mythology dictates that this event, the impregnation of Leda by Zeus in swan signifier, was to go on to convey about the snatch of Helen, the subsequent autumn of Troy, and the slaying of Agamemnon. Oracles frequently prophesied such events, and Yeats & # 8217 ; thought of fate and cyclical history tantrums in rather good with this verse form.
In some of Yeats & # 8217 ; other verse forms, most notably in his 1920 work, & # 8220 ; A Second Coming, & # 8221 ; he expresses his thought of history as happening in rhythms of about 2,000 old ages. Naming these rhythms & # 8220 ; coils, & # 8221 ; he diagrammed them as a series of cones, attached base to establish and tip to tip. Once the maximal diameter had been reached, and the existence had expanded, in both a physical and cultural sense, a procedure taking about 2,000 old ages, it would get down to contract, in an antithetical stage to the first cone.
The verse form of & # 8220 ; Leda and the Swan, & # 8221 ; so, fits into Yeats & # 8217 ; antithetical coil, with things wending their manner towards catastrophe. Yeats himself depict his system: & # 8220 ; When the old primary [ coil ] becomes the new antithetical [ coil ] , the old realization of an nonsubjective moral jurisprudence is changed into a subconscious turbulent instinct.. The universe of stiff usage and jurisprudence is broken up by & # 8216 ; the unmanageable enigma on the beastly floor & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( Macrae 157 ) .
Therefore, his poems about take on a double mentality, and can be, at times categorized, much like William Blake & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Songs of Innocence & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; Songs of Experience. & # 8221 ; Yeats writes both on the ideal ( for illustration, his verse forms on the birth of Christ, such as & # 8220 ; The Magi & # 8221 ; ) and the antithetical. And therefore, the system that Yeats subscribes to seems to turn over on, irrespective of single gestures or events. Possibly this is what allows Yeats to compose of the atrociousnesss Leda experiences with such clinical withdrawal.
. The verse form leaves the reader with many inquiries. Did Leda recognize the swan is Zeus? Did she seek to defy at all? Did Leda glimpse the hereafter irrevocably shaped by her kids? All these inquiries posed by the verse form are left to the reader to make up one’s mind. Again, in Yeats & # 8217 ; coils, the replies to them hold small, if any significance. Yet, to the reader, they can wholly alter the reading of the verse form. Like many of Yeats & # 8217 ; other plants, & # 8220 ; Leda and the Swan & # 8221 ; seems to be instead open-ended. Yet, in leting the reader to make up one’s mind for themselves the replies to the inquiries, Yeats achieves non merely beautiful, but besides extremely personal verse forms. With each reading, the significance of the verse form to the reader will be different. And so, & # 8220 ; Leda and the Swan & # 8221 ; transcends civilization and instruction and category, and even the Grecian myth that it sprang from, to go a verse form that asks its readers to believe how their reading of the work affects history.
Plants Cited
Encarta ( R ) 98 Desk Encyclopedia ( degree Celsius ) & A ; 1996-97 Microsoft Corporation.
Macrae. Alasdair D. F. W. B. Yeats. St. Martin & # 8217 ; s Press: New York. 1995
Parada, Carlos. Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology. Paul Anstroms Forlag: Jonsered. Sweden. 1993. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //hsa.brown.edu/ maicar/Leda.html
Whitaker, Thomas R. Swan and Shadow: Yeats & # 8217 ; s Dialogue with History. University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill. 1964
1 In Greek mythology, male monarch of Mycenae, and commanding officer of the Grecian forces in the Trojan War. He was the boy of Atreus. To quiet the air currents detaining his ground forces & # 8217 ; s journey to Troy, Agamemnon sacrificed his girl Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. After a ten-year besieging, Troy fell and Agamemnon returned to Mycenae. With him came Trojan princess Cassandra as a award of war. Upon his return, Clytemnestra, his married woman, killed him with the aid of her lover Aegisthus. ( Encarta ( R ) 98 Desk Encyclopedia )
