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Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda, a Spartan queen.
Back to Previous. Leda and the Swan. By William Butler Yeats. 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. How can those terrified vague fingers push. The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
‘Leda and the Swan’ is a standout sonnet by W.B. Yeats, featured in his 1928 collection, The Tower. The poem explores the Greek myth of Leda, seduced by Zeus as a swan, and is considered one of Yeats’ finest works.
In his poem “Leda and the Swan,” William Butler Yeats retells the classic Greek myth in which Leda, a human woman, is impregnated by the god Zeus while he is in the form of a swan.
The speaker retells a story from Greek mythology, the rape of the girl Leda by the god Zeus, who had assumed the form of a swan. Leda felt a sudden blow, with the “great wings” of the swan still beating above her.
Leda and the Swan. W. B. Yeats. 1865 –. 1939. 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. How can those terrified vague fingers push.
Leda and the Swan, sonnet by William Butler Yeats, composed in 1923, printed in The Dial (June 1924), and published in the collection The Cat and the Moon and Certain Poems (1924). The poem is based on the Greek mythological story of beautiful Leda, who gave birth to Helen and Clytemnestra after.
