45 pages • 1 hour read
William Butler YeatsA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
The poem “Leda” revolves around the ancient Greek myth in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, rapes the princess Leda. Among the children that result from the incident are Helen, whose kidnapping sparks the Trojan War, and Clytemnestra, who kills her husband Agamemnon after he returns from the Trojan War as retribution for sacrificing their daughter to persuade the gods to turn the winds so that he could sail for Troy. The poem describes Zeus’s assault on Leda with intensity, capturing its violent and overpowering nature. It then delves into the immediate and long-term aftermath of the encounter. The lines, “A shudder in the loins engenders there / The broken wall, the burning roof and tower / And Agamemnon dead,” reference the Trojan War and the death of King Agamemnon, indicating the far-reaching consequences of their union. The final lines meditate on Leda’s transformation after the experience. The question, “Did she put on his knowledge with his power / Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?” suggests that, during the brutal act, Leda might have inherited or absorbed some form of divine knowledge from Zeus (149).
By William Butler Yeats
Among School Children
William Butler Yeats
A Prayer for My Daughter
William Butler Yeats
Cathleen Ni Houlihan
William Butler Yeats
Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop
William Butler Yeats
Death
William Butler Yeats
Easter, 1916
William Butler Yeats
Leda and the Swan
William Butler Yeats
No Second Troy
William Butler Yeats
Sailing to Byzantium
William Butler Yeats
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Butler Yeats
The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats
The Wild Swans at Coole
William Butler Yeats
When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats