“Leda and the Swan” Introduction

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“Leda and the Swan” Summary

“Leda and the Swan” Themes

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  Sex and Violence

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• 

  Fate and Free Will

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• 

  History and Transformation

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Leda and the Swan”

• Lines 1-2

  A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
  Above the staggering girl,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-4

  her thighs caressed
  By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
  He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  How can those terrified vague fingers push
  The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  And how can body, laid in that white rush,
  But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-11

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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-13

  Being so caught up,
  So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-15

  Did she put on his knowledge with his power
  Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

  

  

  

  

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“Leda and the Swan” Symbols

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  The Swan

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  Leda

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• 

  The Trojan War

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“Leda and the Swan” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Anthropomorphism

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Synecdoche

  

  

  

  

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“Leda and the Swan” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Blow
• Staggering
• Caressed
• Dark webs
• Nape
• Bill
• White rush
• Loins
• Engenders
• The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
• Agamemnon
• Brute
• Indifferent

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Leda and the Swan”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Leda and the Swan” Speaker

“Leda and the Swan” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Leda and the Swan”

More “Leda and the Swan” Resources

• External Resources

  • Yeats's Geometry and Gyres — An excerpt from a scholarly article that investigates W.B. Yeats's theories about "gyres" and historical change.

  • The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats — An online exhibition presented by the National Library of Ireland on W.B. Yeats and his impact on his native country.

  • Yeats's Biography — An account of W.B. Yeats's life, with a focus on his development as a poet.

  • Leda and the Swan in Art — A round-up of just some of the many interpretations of the story of Leda and the Swan in visual art.

  • Encyclopedia Mythica — A helpful resource for more information on mythical figures referenced by the poem, including Leda, Zeus, and Agamemnon.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

  • Adam's Curse

  • Among School Children

  • An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

  • A Prayer for my Daughter

  • Byzantium

  • Easter, 1916

  • He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

  • In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

  • Lapis Lazuli

  • Sailing to Byzantium

  • September 1913

  • The Lake Isle of Innisfree

  • The Second Coming

  • The Song of Wandering Aengus

  • The Wild Swans at Coole

  • To a Shade

  • When You Are Old