Violence In Leda and the Swan by W.B.Yeats Essay -- essays research pa

Violence In Leda and the swan by W.B.YeatsLeda and the puke is one of the most well kn throw verses by Yeats, although its leaning as to what sincerely happens during the lines of this sonnet. There are many different ways as to how one erect approach the interpretation of the poem, is it influenced by Yeats own life, in which case he puts all his frustration towards Maud Gonne into words, or is it a poem about power, or about politics? I retain deliberately chosen not to take into consideration the political and brotherly background of Ireland at that time. This, because I prefer to restrain my analysis to the poem itself, and how one could interpret its proper meaning. As a consequence, it is interesting and of import to remember that one of Yeats many interests was Greek mythology, more precisely issues conjugated to Helen of Troy. In this poem, Yeats immortalises his vision of how Leda got pregnant by Zeus who was disguised as a swan when he raped her. This act ga ve birth to two eggs, and one of them was to become Helen of Troy. It is her birth that was the real cause of the Trojan struggle and Agamemnons death. To write this poem Yeats was inspired by a carving, a Hellenistic bas-relief reproduced in Elie Faures History of Art (1921) , which he owned. His description of what happens in the poem concurs with this carving. This is a strong poem, where the image of a woman can be seen as dirtied, dehumanised, and shameful, the girl was not only raped in a normal way, but it was an animal that carried out the act. Still, Yeats describes what happened in such a way that one wonders if at some point, Ledas body actually is led by lust, and puts back her fear, or if she is really trying to fight back, as we will see further on, in... ...me, he does play on provocation, as when the poem was written Gaelic usage included a strong involvement of the catholic church both in law making, and in morality. There were censorship everywhere, in book s, films, and to show how far it went, we can add that even contraception and divorce was do illegal Yeats was against all this, and it can be felt in his poem, as it touches pornography, and female purity.BibliographyCullingford Elizabeth, Gender and history in Yeats love poetry, New York siege of Syracuse Hargrove, Nancy D., Aesthetic Distance in Yeasts Leda and the Swan, in azimuth Quarterly, Vol. 39, 1983Scott C. Holstad, California State University, Long Beach, Yeasts Leda and the Swan Psycho-Sexual Therapy in action mechanism Univ.PressW.B.Yeats, Selected poems, Penguin Modern Classicswww.sparknotes.com