What is a king to a god? Even if that god has committed unspeakable acts? Leda and the Swan is a poem that causes a lot controversy; some people feel that Zeus raped Leda where as others feel that she was seduced. William Butler Yeats officially published this poem in 1928. He was known as one of the world’s greatest authors of his time. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Republic of Ireland on June 13,1865 and lived to be 74 years old. He was very proud of his Irish nationality and “maintained his cultural roots, featuring Irish legends and heroes in many of his poems and plays.” ("William Butler Yeats"). He moved from Ireland to English for an extended amount of time, but later returned to Ireland after the “Easter Rising, which was an …show more content…
Greek mythology was the Greek religion; it explained life, death and the entirety of the world to them. Some scholars wonder if the Leda and the Swan was a way Yeats used to show how he truly felt about Ireland’s downward spiral; how the English were destroying their culture and way of life. Scholars developed this theory based on the social-political issues going on between England and Ireland at the time the poem was written. Leda and the Swan is written as a sonnet. The particular type used by Yeats is referred to as a Petrarchan sonnet; a sonnet is defined as “…a fourteen-lined poem divided into unequal parts.” (“Kennedy, X J, and Dana Gioia.”). There are multiple types of sonnets, such as Italian sonnet, English sonnet, etc. Yeats was very creative in the sense that he starts out with an English style sonnet and then switches to an Italian style sonnet as the poem develops.
The general rhyming scheme that Leda and the Swan has is: ABAB CDCD EFGEFG. In sonnets, there is something known as the “turn” which is when the entire poem shifts from talking about one thing to something else. In Leda and the Swan, this turn is when it goes from talking about Leda and the swan to the Trojan War.
The poem would be quite confusing to any reader that doesn’t understand that it is about Greek mythos and written in the sonnet style. The wording itself isn’t hard to grasp. The real challenge is the understanding of the background story of
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.
Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin. However, he’s family moved to London after he was born. Yeats decided to move to London when he was about 14 years old. After Yeats returned to London he met famous writers like Oscar Wilde, Lionel Johnson and Maud Gonne, this encourage him to write about his Irish heritage. Even though Yeats lived in London for about 14 years “Yeats maintained his cultural roots/Irish nationality” (Poetry Foundation). In addition, this means that Yeats showed his love to where he came from by including Irish legends on his poems and plays.
A sonnet by definition is, a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line. A poem is a piece of writing that says a lot in a few words; this sonnet does exactly that, it utilizes a multitude of literary devices to tell a story of a writer examining life with an ending message to push forward and go. In “An Echo Sonnet”, the author, Robert Pack uses repetition, hypophora, antithesis and synecdoche to reveal the voice experiencing writer's block which leads to the discussion of life and death between the voice and the echo.
The poem is structured in a way which follows the proper metre for a sonnet, however, it is unusual in a sense that it is free verse and has no rhyme scheme. The sentences are broken to fit the iambic pentameter. This creates pauses, and a choppiness in the flow
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to, and study, the myths, in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.
William Butler Yeats is one of the most esteemed poets in 20th century literature and is well known for his Irish poetry. While Yeats was born in Ireland, he spent most of his adolescent years in London with his family. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he later moved back to Ireland. He attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and joined the Theosophical Society soon after moving back. He was surrounded by Irish influences most of his life, but it was his commitment to those influences and his heritage that truly affected his poetry. William Butler Yeats’s poetry exemplifies how an author’s Irish identity can help create and influence his work.
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that rhyme in a particular pattern. William Shakespeare’s sonnets were the only non-dramatic poetry that he wrote. Shakespeare used sonnets within some of his plays, but his sonnets are best known as a series of one hundred and fifty-four poems. The series of one hundred and fifty-four poems tell a story about a young aristocrat and a mysterious mistress. Many people have analyzed and contemplated about the significance of these “lovers”. After analysis of the content of both the “young man” sonnets and the “dark lady sonnets”, it is clear that the poet, Shakespeare, has a great love for the young man and only lusts after his mistress.
Yeats works drew heavily on Irish mythology and history, he never fully embraced his Protestant past nor joined the majority or Ireland Roman Catholics but he devoted much of his life to the study in myriad other subjects. The Irish writer’s James O’ Grady and Sir William Ferguson were the most influential. Through his writing Yeats found his voice to speak up against the harsh nationalist policies of the time, his early dramatic works conveyed his respect for Irish legend and fascination with occult. Yeats mother was the first introduce him and his sisters to the Irish folktales he grew to love so much but little did you know that his brother jack and father was also an accomplished artist and they both helped William in his writing and it's the reason he found his own interest in the wonderful arts as he called them. In 1894 Yeats met friend and patron Lady Augusta Gregory and thus began their involvement with The Irish Literary Theatre which was founded in 1899 in Dublin. Along with literature, he also loved the theater and wrote several plays. He collaborated with the likes of Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and George Moore to establish the Irish Literary Theatre for the purpose of performing Irish and Celtic plays. As a dramatist, his successful works included ‘The Countess Cathleen’ (1892), ‘The Land of Heart’s Desire’ (1894) and ‘The King’s Threshold’
Yeats uses rhetorical questions to let the reader enter into Leda 's consciousness. Her fingers are "terrified" but "vague", physically they are blurred because they are buried in the feathers of the swan, and emotionally, "vague" may perhaps indicate she does not know what to do or that she does not take any definite action.
The story of Leda and the swan is mentioned very little in classical mythology based on Edith Hamilton’s book. However, the story is so famous and influential that many artworks referring to the story are created. In this video, some famous examples of art piece, along with the
In William Butler Yeats poem “Leda and the Swan”, he uses the fourteen lines of the traditional sonnet form in a radical, modernist style. He calls up a series of unforgettable, bizarre images of an immediate physical event using abstract descriptions in brief language. Through structure and language Yeats is able to paint a powerful sexual image to his readers without directly giving the meaning of the poem.
The sonnet, being one of the most traditional and recognized forms of poetry, has been used and altered in many time periods by writers to convey different messages to the audience. The strict constraints of the form have often been used to parallel the subject in the poem. Many times, the first three quatrains introduce the subject and build on one another, showing progression in the poem. The final couplet brings closure to the poem by bringing the main ideas together. On other occasions, the couplet makes a statement of irony or refutes the main idea with a counter statement. It leaves the reader with a last impression of what the author is trying to say.
W.B. Yeats, a key figure of the modernist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was born in Dublin in 1865. Although spending much of his childhood and youth in London, Yeats is seen as an inherently Irish literary figure. Through his early work, employing not only ancient Greek myth, but also Celtic legend, he sought to re-ignite in Ireland notions of heritage and tradition, which had diminished through the years. In Ireland, from around 1890 onwards, there was a very noticeable return to all things Irish, including a re-introduction of the Gaelic language, through the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, and the formation of a highly nationalist community in Ireland. Alongside these practical
The themes presented in his work often have a universal appeal, focusing on ideas such as life and death, nature, art, regeneration, religion etc. This essay will examine the way in which Yeats presents the contrast between the experiential and ideas of the community with particular reference to poems such as ‘Sailing to Byzantium,’ ‘Two Songs from a Play,’ ‘The Tower,’ and minor references to ‘The Fool by the Roadside,’ and ‘All Souls Night.’ i
Shakespearean sonnets, also known as Elizabethan sonnets, were sonnets that Shakespeare used quite often. Shakespearean sonnets (Elizabethan sonnets) consist of fourteen lines, has an iambic pentameter rhythm, and has three quatrains and one couplet. A quatrain is a type of stanza that consists of four lines. A couplet is two lines of a verse. The quatrains in Shakespearean sonnets have alternating end rhymes and the couplet is rhymed. Having end rhyme in a poem creates a rhyming pattern so the