William Butler Yeats Leda and the Swan

In the sonnet Leda and the Swan, William Butler Yeats handlings the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet form of an octave consisting of eight lines and a sestet of 6 lines in iambic pentameter to explore humans maculation in the world. Yeats uses a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFGEFG with the octave background knowledge up the situation of Ledas struggle, and the sestet providing commentary on its effects. In this sonnet, Yeats questions his place in the world as an operative wondering if he has created something eternal.

At the beginning of Yeats sonnet there exists an air of mystery seeing as the title is the scarcely lineament to the identity of the characters. Leda and the Swan alludes to the mythological story of Leda, Helens mother, who is raped by Zeus in the form of a great swan. The Swan is a symbol of mystery and dear in throughout the poem. Yeats uses startling imagery and linguistic communication meet sexual tension in the first stanza to indicate his unavoidableness to explore in set to satisfy. The imagery and language in the octave support Ledas struggle with the rape, great wings, lacing still, dark webs and nape caught represent the her resistance through the use of stressed syllables.



The last line of the first stanza, He holds her mixed-up breast upon his breast, uses alliteration repeating the h sound do the line difficult to read much like the worry Leda is facing in her struggle with the rape. The first four lines are a metaphor for Yeats struggle with creating poetry and his unification with the muse.

In the octave Ledas violent encounter with Zeus is draw through sensory words which indicate the Swans powerful actions, sudden blow and beating, and Ledas weakness, helpless, terrified, and vague. Yeats choice language creates evocative imagery of the girls rape by a swan. Yeats uses the word vague as a reference to the loss of self he is experiencing and questions the reaction to this.

The sestet is distinctly separated from...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



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