Rape, Metaphor, and Prophecy in "Leda and the Swan"

In his poem "Leda and the Swan", William Butler Yeats forces the reader to witness the rape of Leda, queen of Sparta, committed by Zeus in the form of a swan, in excruciating detail, thus "erasing any traditional pastoral romanticism associated with classical myth" (Carmichael, 2026).

Interestingly, Zeus is never mentioned by name, and Leda is only named in the title. This could mean that Yeats intended the poem for his more educated readers, the ones familiar enough with the myth to recognize the characters by their actions. But it could also be that he omitted the names to allow the actors to become symbols, thus giving the poem meaning beyond the physical brutality.

"Leda is at the center of several clashes. Directly, she is in physical conflict with Zeus [...] her action contributes to a cyclical shift in power that occurs in the universe, just as [...] between Ireland and Great Britain." (Babaee and Yahya, 2014)

Leda is also a metaphor for Ireland. Since the first version of the poem was written in 1923, with the background of the political instability resulting from the Irish Civil War, it is plausible that Yeats "wanted his poem to attack England’s violence." (Babaee and Yahya, 2014)

Finally, if we are to consider the poet's belief in a history that repeats itself in cyclical ages of 2000 years each (the gyres), we can read "the rape of Leda by Zeus in parallel with the annunciation to the Virgin" (Babaee and Yahya, 2014).

In fact, Yeats held the belief that each turning point in history was sealed by divine brutality. Both Leda and Mary found themselves with a divine pregnancy they had not agreed on, where the divine took the shape of a white bird, and sealed their fate to be the carriers of someone who would destroy the previous civilization, causing history to turn.

Since 2000 years have passed since the fruit of Mary's loins was born, it is time for a new gyre to turn.

And if history is destined to repeat itself, after Leda and Mary, what insight will Ériu gain from the Anglican brutality?

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The form is a Petrarchan (or Italian) Sonnet, where an octave and a sestet present two thematically different moments: an event and the reflection on it. The rhyming scheme ABAB CDCD EFGEFG, however, differs from the classic Italian sonnet, which would require the two quatrains to be connected by the same rhyme.

We can, therefore, observe a pattern break and a thematic break between the first two stanzas. The event is divided between the swan's attack on Leda and the sexual act itself.

The two tercets are also divided between the future consequences of the divine brutality and a reflection on the present consequences of it.

The rhyme is also "imperfect in four lines: "push" with "rush" and "up" with "drop". The twist in the rhyme of the poem helps Yeats catch/maintain the reader's attention, avoiding losing of interest while reading a poem resembling a song whose perfect melodic rhyme might bore everyone." (Balinisteanu-Furdu, 2010)

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The First Quatrain: Leda Attacked

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A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, 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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As the poem begins, the reader is in physical proximity to Leda, as we, too, confused, cannot see where the threat is coming from. "A sudden blow": we feel the hit coming from somewhere, and can only hear the beating of huge wings. Since swans don't have particularly big wingspans, the adjective "great" is likely a hint to the divine presence in the swan.

In the second line, the reader takes a little distance from Leda, and we can now see that the attack is coming from above her. The queen of Sparta has been reduced to a "staggering girl" by the sudden shock of this attack. The alliteration of the "g" sound in this expression emphasises the confused stumbling of the woman.

The two enjambements in the first two verses create a sense of the rush and speed of these events.

We then observe the swan descend on the woman as his feet "caress" her thighs, and his beak grabs her by the nape.

There is a promise of kindness, as his webbed paws are said to be "caressing" her thighs. But it is immediately broken by the animalistic behavior that follows. Biting down on the female's nape is a common way to assert physical dominance before mounting her in the animal kingdom. This empty promise emphasizes the deceitful nature of Zeus.

He then holds her against her will in forced proximity, " her helpless breast upon his breast".

After the first line, Leda is dehumanized and objectified. She is broken into parts and never made whole again in the poem, as she will only be referred to by synecdoche. This could be a subtle hint of her role as a symbol for Ireland, broken into parts by the Civil War.

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The Second Quatrain. The Act Itself

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How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

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The reader is now fully disassociated with Leda, as the brutal act is conveyed through two rhetorical questions.

Standing with the poet, we agree that she could not have stopped this. Her fingers, "terrified" and "vague," could not push away the "feathered glory" ("glory" being a word often used to refer to the phallus) from her thighs, which are described as "loosening". This could be interpreted as a hint of her body accepting its impending doom, but also as her thighs being slowly pried open by the sheer strength of her aggressor.

With the second rhetorical question, too, we have to agree that she could not have done anything but feel her aggressor in this forced proximity, as her body is laid in a "white rush" (referring to the speed of coital movement of the white bird). The words "strange heart" could be hinting at Zeus, since it is not a human's nor a swan's heart that she's feeling. However, they could also be interpreted as the heart not being Leda's own, despite her feeling it in her own chest. A way to describe the extreme proximity.

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The First Tercet: A Glimpse Of The Future

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A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

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"A shudder in the loins" is the conclusion of the sexual act that will make her pregnant with four children: Castor, Pollux, Helen of Troy, and Clytemnestra. The latter two responsible for the fall of Troy and the death of Agamemnon in its aftermath.

The fall of Troy is very succinctly described by another synecdoche, "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower". Line 11 is then both thematically and formally broken in half, where "the formal break mirrors the historical fracture caused by the divine intervention". (Carmichal, 2026)

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The Second Tercet: Reflection On The Act.

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Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

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In the last Tercet, we are back by Leda's side, reflecting on the present state of her situation. And, together with Yeats, we wonder if her being so entwined with the divine and dominated by the god could have given her some insight into the future, before the beast was done with her — the "beak" released her, the way an animal done mounting would release the female's nape — and became "indifferent" — he got what he came for and is done with the woman.

The god here is described as the "brute blood", both because of the pain he has caused but also because blood is a symbol of life force and of a flow of power that, through the profecy, went from him to her.

The closing Tercet invited many to consider it as an exhortation for Ireland not to give up despite its loss against the power of colonial England.

"Although Zeus was in power, Leda obtained something valuable from his violence. She gained knowledge and awareness that are significant for a weak figure in confrontation with a powerful force". (Babaee and Yahya, 2014)

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Sources:

- "A Splintered Gyre: Myth, History, and Divine Violence in Yeats’s Sonnet " by Tim Carmichael

- "Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan”: A Myth of Violence" by Ruzbeh Babaee*, Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya

- "Modern Reinterpretation of the Myth in Leda and the Swan" by Catalina Balinisteanu-Furdu

- W.B. Yeats on Wikipedia

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