“Leda and the Swan” Introduction- 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. This conception results in
the birth of Helen of Troy, who grows up to cause the legendary Trojan War—an event that, in turn, becomes the catalyst
for the Golden Age of Greece and the dawn of modern history. In his arresting rendition of the myth, Yeats uses the
traditional sonnet form to new ends, capturing the powerful forces by which history is made and the human impact of
fate's violence and indifference.
“Leda and the Swan” Summary-The god Zeus, in the form of a swan, suddenly attacks Leda, striking her with his enormous
wings. She stumbles as he looms above her, his webbed feet grabbing hold of her thighs while his bill latches on to her
neck. She is overpowered, upright only because Zeus is holding her up, pressing their bodies close together as he assaults
her.
Is there any way Leda's terrified, disoriented fingers could prevent the god from parting her thighs and raping her? How
could she, overwhelmed by this blur of white feathers, keep from feeling the alien heartbeat of her attacker, pressed
against her own?
The swan Zeus ejaculates into Leda's womb, and conceives the child, Helen, who will grow up to shape mythological history
by causing the fall of Troy and the death of the Greek king Agamemnon. Was Leda too overwhelmed, too overpowered by
her godly assailant, to realize the significance of this moment? Or did she possibly gain access to Zeus's godly
foresight before he callously let go and let her fall?
“Leda and the Swan” Themes
Sex and Violence- "Leda and the Swan" depicts an act of rape. The poem’s graphic imagery leaves no doubt that Zeus, in
the form of a swan, violently assaults Leda. At the same time, however, the poem seems to revel in sensuality even as it lays
bare the brutality of Leda’s rape and its equally brutal consequence—the Trojan War. This ambiguous depiction of sexual
violence is a central tension of the poem, and it is left unresolved. The poem neither condemns nor approves of Leda’s
rape, but seeks instead to capture the complexity of the moment in light of its enormous mythological significance.
From the opening phrase, “A sudden blow,” it’s clear that the god Zeus is violating the human Leda. Words such as
“staggering girl,” “helpless,” and “terrified” clearly articulate that Leda is taken by force. The fact that her thighs “loosen”
indicates that, at first, they were clamped together, and she tries (but fails) to “push” Zeus away. The poem thus reflects
Leda’s initial panic, confusion, and resistance upon being attacked, which in turn draws attention to her fragility. A human
woman has no chance, the poem implies, against a god’s “feathered glory” and “white rush”—all she has are “terrified
vague fingers” and a “helpless breast.”
Despite the clear violence here, the speaker also lends the encounter a (controversial) sensuality. Words and phrases like
“thighs, “caressed,” “nape,” “holds her … breast” and, later, “feathered glory” and “shudder in the loins” all lend a sensual
urgency to the poem’s depiction of this union. What’s more, Leda’s fingers pushing Zeus away are described as “vague,” her
thighs eventually “loosen,” and the speaker even suggests that her body (or any body) cannot help but “feel the strange
heart” of Zeus.
All of these details suggest that eventually Leda may not have simply surrendered to but even enjoyed the sex. This is
troubling from a modern perspective but perhaps not surprising given the era in which the poem was written (1920s) or the
era in which the poem takes place (ancient Greece).
The poem’s description of Leda’s reaction to her rape then culminates in the end of the sexual act, which results in
impregnation: “A shudder in the loins engenders there / The broken wall, the burning roof, and tower.” Here the poem’s
scope opens up dramatically, from Leda’s body to the wider world, moving abruptly from the rape itself to
its consequences—that is, the eventual fall of Troy. Now, the poem reveals its real concerns: not with the rape itself, but
with what that rape will achieve on a mythological scale. This moment also thus offers what is perhaps the poem’s clearest
take on sex and violence: that violence begets more violence, which is emphasized by the callous way Zeus treats Leda at
the end of her rape, when his “indifferent beak” simply “let[s] her drop.”
Ultimately, the ambiguous depiction of Leda’s rape suggests that it cannot be understood as an act of sexual violence alone.
Rather, it is a tipping point in history, and at such a scale—the immense playing field of history, legacy, myth, and
literature—only cause and effect can be traced, not right or wrong. The moral quandary of Leda’s body being violated is not
the poem’s most pressing concern. Nevertheless, the speaker’s attention to Leda’s panic and fear are important; the
speaker does not paper over the harm Zeus has caused, but instead contextualizes that harm within the larger scope of
mythology and history.
Fate and Free Will- To what degree do human beings have control over their destinies? In ancient times, there was no
doubt that the gods held ultimate power over human beings. “Leda and the Swan” depicts this reality in no uncertain
terms: Leda’s body and fate are at Zeus’s mercy. Nevertheless, the poem also suggests that humans possess enough free
will to at least question their fates.
Furthermore, by posing such questions directly of the reader, the poem speaks to more than just this specific Greek myth. It
suggests that all human beings are subject to forces beyond their control—and meditates on whether human beings are
capable of understanding their place in the grand scheme of destiny and history.
From the start, by depicting an act of rape, the poem raises questions related to power and agency. Importantly, however,
Zeus holds the power in this poem not because he is Leda’s rapist but because he is a god. Rape therefore takes
on metaphorical significance, in which Leda’s assault is transformed into a symbol of the fate versus free will debate.
In this poem, fate wins: Zeus easily overpowers Leda. What's more, readers familiar with the myth will know that Leda is no
ordinary human, but a queen in her own right. By referring to her merely as a “girl,” the poem emphasizes her frailty.
Between a god and a queen, the god still holds all the power, suggesting that all human beings are ultimately subject to the
tides of history, fate, destiny, and change.
As Leda's rape continues, the second stanza is then composed of two rhetorical questions, both of which essentially ask to
what degree Leda has any free will within this situation. By leaving both questions unanswered, the poem asks the reader
to draw their own conclusions. This is emphasized by the fact that the “body” in line 7 is assigned no pronouns:
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
This could be Leda’s body, or Zeus’s body, or even any body. In this moment, the poem pushes the reader to pose the
rhetorical questions directly of themselves, and take the measure their own free will against the immense forces of fate and
history.
The suggestion in this stanza that Leda eventually consents to Zeus does not square with readers’ modern understanding of
sexual assault. However, it’s important to note that regardless of whether she eventually consents, the poem overall makes
clear that Leda has no control over the situation. The poem therefore suggests that no matter how human beings react to
the forces dictating their fates, those forces are still immensely more powerful than human free will.
The poem's most explicit depiction of fate takes place in the final stanza, at the moment of conception. Zeus’s loins literally
plant the seeds of myth and history, and Leda, described as “caught up” and “mastered,” is powerless against the enormous
forces of divinity and fate having their way with her body.
That said, even as this moment serves as a reminder of Leda’s powerlessness, it also affirms her significance. Her body is
literally where the conception occurs, and metaphorically where all the historical action comes to fruition. Zeus may be in
control of her fate, but he needs Leda as the vessel.
Importantly, the last two lines of the poem then consider the degree to which Leda comprehends what is happening to her.
The speaker wonders aloud whether Leda was granted momentary godly insight into the bigger picture of her assault—or if
she was left in the dark, simply a cog in the wheel of history. This is posed as another rhetorical question, again asking the
reader to draw their own conclusions about whether a human being can understand their fate. While the poem clearly
asserts that humans are powerless to resist fate, this conclusion suggests that they at least have the potential to grasp the
greater meaning of their existence.
History and Transformation- The clearest thesis of “Leda and the Swan” is that a single moment can reverberate
throughout the entirety of history. Yeats famously believed that history was a series of interlocking and repeating
patterns—he thought of them as “gyres,” which spiraled toward significant moments that triggered immense change. The
significant moment of the poem is of course Zeus’s rape of Leda, which, according to myth, led to the Trojan War and the
Golden Age of Greece—a modern age of art, literature, and democracy. The poem treats this significant moment between
Leda and Zeus as a mythological and historical tipping point.
Of course, the poem makes clear that the thing that set this all in motion was an act of sexual violation, and that this
violence, in turn, led to more terribly violent events before that Golden Age emerged. The poem thus also implies that
sweeping historical transformation is often tied to moments of violation and violence.
Accordingly, the poem is also often read as an allusion to the dawn of Christianity, as well as a reference to the Irish War for
Independence and Irish Civil War, which took place during the years when Yeats was writing “Leda and the Swan.”
Indeed, to any reader versed in the Western canon, which Yeats certainly was, the poem’s close attention to Leda’s
experience also calls to mind another woman’s experience with divine conception—Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Yeats
himself wrote in his book A Vision that he saw Leda’s rape as analogous with the Annunciation—the moment when the
angel Gabriel tells Mary she will conceive a child by God. Likewise, just like Leda’s children, especially Helen, have a
transformative effect on Greek history, there’s no question that Mary’s son Jesus and the rise of Christianity had a
transformative effect on global history, including Yeats’s own country of Ireland.
Last but not least, many readers have interpreted the poem as an allusion to colonial relationship between Great Britain
and Ireland, and more specifically to the Irish War for Independence. In this reading, Zeus represents not just the powerful
forces of fate and history but the colonial power of England, which fully conquered Ireland in the 1500s, leading to famine,
oppression, and violence—a kind of metaphorical rape, in the poem’s terms.
Between 1916 and 1922, however, pro-Irish forces staged a rebellion that resulted in an Irish Free State (in which Yeats
served two terms as a senator). Nevertheless, Ireland still technically remained under English control. Then, between 1922
and 1924, when Yeats was writing “Leda and the Swan,” Civil War broke out, resulting in the split between independent
Ireland and a Northern Irish state that remained part of the United Kingdom.
This was an immense turning point in the history of Ireland and England, and the beginning of a new era for Ireland. Thus,
just as Zeus’s rape “engenders” the rise of the Greek Golden Age, the English domination of Ireland eventually gave rise to
Irish independence. This could not take place without violence, however, which the poem also vividly reflects.