Leda as well as the swan article

Yeatss Leda and the Swan:

Psycho-Sexual Therapy in Action

W. B. Yeatss greatly anthologized composition, Leda and the Swan, may be read in

endless ways: as a political poem, a poem affected by Nietzsches idea of Will to

Power, a poem of knowledge finally achieved through violence. Is definitely the poem just

referr e to a myth? Is it dealing with historical determinism? Critical methodologies

attempt to talk about these issues and more in their therapies of Leda and the Swan.

Nevertheless , to understand fully the poem and its implications, a formal close reading of th

e text has to be combined with extra biographical information to inform a final

psychoanalytic studying of the poem. An understanding with the events encircling Yeatss

life, then, will certainly contribute to a textual research to show the fact that poem may be re advertisement as

Yeatss own particular rape imagination, in which Maud Gonne can be Leda and Yeats him self the

swan, and in displacing his frustrations into the composition, Yeats transforms destructive urges

into a helpful thing of beauty.

Leda and the Swan is known as a sonnet, one of the most precise varieties of literature

noted. An interesting paradox emerges, yet , at first glance. The poem is definitely written

in a traditional form (sonnet), using a traditional vocally mimic eachother scheme, the subject matter

my spouse and i s incredibly non-traditional (violent rape as opposed to the usual take pleasure in sonnets). This

paradox is definitely representative of the countless oppositional factors which abound in the text message and

that really help form the basis for learning the oppositions which usually influence bot h Yeats

and the composition.

The rhyme plan is classic (ABAB CDCD EFG EFG) yet interestingly imperfect

for the reason that four from the rhymes aren’t perfect: push and run, up and drop

(Hargrove 244). This again is another oppositional aspect, typical of Yeats, and could

be seen to symbolize the competitors between Yeats, the last Romantic, and Yeats, the

Modernist.

A transition exists in the poems language, from an extreme intensity into a

vague unaggressive distance. The language in the beginning of the poem units the strengthen of an

intense sense of urgency. Priscilla Washburn Shaw makes a fantastic point when ever she

says

The actions interrupts after the field at the beginning using a sudden hit, and

once again, in the third stanza, using a shudder inside the loins. Given that inaccurate to say

that a composition begins simply by an disruption when practically nothing precedes, nevertheless the effect of capital t he

opening is just that (36).

The effect of the device is the fact it takes in the spectator/narrator, and eventually the

visitor, into the action and in the poem.

The action continues pertaining to the first three lines of the initially quatrain. Yeats

doesnt bother with a full format until the last line of the quatrain, after which

the urgency relaxes (Hargrove 240). The language in the 1st full ép?tre is

symbolize ative with the opposition inherent in the composition, in this case, among intensity

and distance (Hargrove 240).

The images, and text in general, in Leda is usually representative, in an

initial examining, of oppositional elements inside the text. A first reading shows Leda

defined in concrete terms and the swan in abstract conditions. Leda is the staggering

girl and the composition refers to Her thighs, her nape, her helpless breast, and her

loosening legs. The swan is never basically called Zeus or even the Swan (in simple fact

Agamemnon is a only term mentioned within the body of the poem). The swan is referred to as

great wings, dark webs, that white-colored rush, blood, indifferent beak, and

feathered glory.

A second reading of the composition, however , demonstrates ambiguities can be found. The

concrete floor and fuzy merge. Generalized terms are used for Leda (terrified vague

fingers) and tangible terms for the swan (wings, invoice, beak). The objective of this

halving could be, since Nancy Hargrove explains, to stress that the goodness is, in fact, a

actual, physical swan engaged in a physical act (241). Regardless, this ambiguity is

again, representative of the issue within the composition.

Verbs play a major role in understanding Leda plus the Swan. They are really present

tight through the octave and the 1st part of the sestet (holds, press, feel

engenders). They then change to earlier tense within the last part of the sestet (caught

mum stered, Did) (Hargrove 241). The verbs in the present tight imply an intense

immediacy when those during the past tense range the reader (and perhaps the aggressor

as well) from what has just happened. Additionally , as Nancy Hargrove points out, ther

e is known as a juxtaposition among active and passive verbs so that the energetic verb forms

(holds, engenders) belong to the swan whilst passive action-word forms (caressed

caught, mastered) belong to Leda (241). The verb varieties, then, perform an active part

in c ontributing to a close textual reading.

Yeats constantly makes use of various devices to further heighten ambiguous

oppositional, and dramatic components within his poetry. In the minimal utilization of the

possessive adjective, and the consequently higher use of to some extent unusual option

for ms, Yeats defines effects that happen to be curiously hung between the tangible and

the typical (Shaw 37), thus showcasing the vagueness in the text message. Further even now

the linguistic suggestiveness from the absence of virtually any qualifiers to get body is consider

able (Shaw 37). It truly is considerable because it makes us much more aware of the

ambiguities (whose body? ). It linguistically suggests deficiency of an identity, it is

essentially a dehumanizing element.

While the subject material of the poem is violent and unsettling, the structure of

Leda conveys emotions of safety and splendor. Hargrove submits that the intensity of

the rape can be controlled by the narrow confines in the sonnet, a great aesthetically pleasing

and heavily organized art form (242). Douglas Archibald asserts, The sonnet form

achieves to get Leda this kind of: violence and historical attract held in one of the

tightly controlled of poetic forms (196). The assault of the rasurado is then managed

within the restrictions of the sonnet. Additionally , the sonnet by itself is quick, thus

making sure the afeitado will be brief as well.

While the afeitado is manipulated through the structure of the composition, the organization

with the poem demonstrates in an orderly manner the progress with the rape (Hargrove 243).

The 1st quatrain presents the invasion. The second quatrain reflects Ledas emotions.

The 1st half of the sestet presents the ejaculation picture. The minimize line symbolizes a

remarkable moment in time: a death-like peace and quiet. The final section of the sestet displays the

take action receding into memory whilst posing the question of that means (Hargrove 243).

Yeats makes use of several technical equipment to convey the intensity of what is

getting portrayed in the poem. Between these devices happen to be alliteration (brute blood)

iambic pentameter, plus the meter in general. Bernard Levine notes that no standard

metric ing pattern is available but there is also a pervading stroking base in which verbal stress

displaces the accent-guided range (116). Nancy Hargrove elaborates by displaying that the

colocar

copies the gasping and throbbing pulsations from the rape by simply its irregularity

it is sudden razor-sharp caesuras, the sentences dumping over by line to line, its

dramatic broken lines inside the sestet, it is piling of stressed syllables (243).

The vagueness in Leda imply a confrontation equally real and imagined, physical

and mental. Bernard Levine addresses the ambiguity encircling the staggering

girl with three. Incredible as intransmutable participle means that the girl can be li

terally physically shocking, but the transitive verb type shows that your woman staggers

your head (of the swan), so to speak (115). Levine addresses an additional ambiguity in the

connotation of the word still in line one. The bird is explained (we assume) a h

having just dropped upon Leda, the word still implies a stunning continuity

(117).

The text, then, presents the rape scene, painting a vivid and horrifying picture

of its intense violence and its particular subsequent change to passivity. The text also

shows a pattern of oppositions and ambiguities that happen to be manifestations of a series of

disputes between the material world plus the spiritual globe: the physical and the

intellectual. Nancy Hargrove remarks the apparent level of resistance between subjective and

cement is representative of that among human and divine (235). Shaw opinions it within a

more personal light: while the opposition between personal and globe (35).

The oppositions inherent within the text, as well as the subsequent series of conflicts

that they can represent, are essential in that they can be manifestations of and parallels to

oppositional conflicts happening in Yeatss own lifestyle. The violent textual rape is th e

reaction to his lack of ability to reconcile these personal conflicts and the poem, then simply, is a great

example of Yeats displacing his frustration, and doing so within a positive very safe manner.

If this assertion should indeed be accurate, Leda and the Swan would be consiste nt with

Yeatss later on poems. Edmund Wilson writes, The development of Yeatss later design

seems to overlap with a disillusionment (17). Cleanth Brooks states that Yeats

proposed to substitute a concrete, significant system, substituting symbol as a means of

combating harsh, technological reality (69). Leda is consistent with the statements.

And, the key to the reality Yeats is trying to address can be Maud Gonne.

Maud Gonne was obviously a militant Irish nationalist with whom Yeats was greatly in

love, and who appeared being a tortured picture in much of his poems. She offered herself

entirely to her region and expected the same form of nationalistic determination from

Yeats. They beloved another deeply but had been never capable of reconcile the differences

in their emotions. Maud Gonne loved Yeats in a platonic sense, Yeats desired a more

all-encompassing love.

Both Yeats and Maud Gonne considered themselves mystics. That they belonged to the

Heretic Purchase of the Golden Daybreak, a society in which they will attended seances. Maud

ideal a natural spiritual lifestyle and experienced that kind of life precluded physical contact

(sex) t ith Yeats. Yeats aspired to a like belief program, but was unable to live up to

these types of idealized standards. Under these kinds of conditions, Yeats and Maud Gonne created a

spiritual marriage. Bernard Levine explains that The relationship was depending on a modéré

ication through dream messages and spirit vision (controlled release of spiritual

tension) (127). Levine suggests this spiritual marital life was the background

psychological excuse for the writing of Leda and the Swan (125). Well before the

poem was written, Maud Gonne had become an well-known entity in Yeatss poems. In

fact, Geoffrey Thurley refers to the poem an additional Maud/Helen poem (165). Levine

also declares that Maud had become identified with Helen (the mythological daughter of

Leda) as early as 1908 (125) and procedes identify Maud with Leda as well (126).

According to his penchant for myth-as-metaphor, and mythology in general

Yeats declared sexual interest to be a misconception. Yet, at the same time, he wrote that he

used to challenge Maud Gonne by always avowing ultimate defeat like a test and this individual believed

that his religious love for Maud can never become consummated apart from through sex

union, supporting the idea that the mystic method and lovemaking love will be inextricably

related (Levine 125, 127). This kind of conflict serves as an example of the type of

opposition Yea ts can never reconcile and which would later manifest itself in Leda

as well as the Swan.

Yeats looked at Maud Gonne as having achieved purity and felt as though this individual too

must be above lovemaking longing. Levine argues that, unable to conquer his sexual

needs, Yeats had tiny alternative but to interpret his continual lovemaking longing as a

betrayal of Maud (128). Interestingly enough, Yeats kept a woman working in london for a

time. Perhaps Yeats provides a good example for us of a man suffering from the

Virgin/Whore syndrome. The natural women in his life will be untouchable and they are

romanticized in his po etry while individuals who succumb to his needs happen to be referred to as

harlots (Presences) (Levine 128).

Yeatss sense of unfaithfulness, coupled with his failed efforts to reduce

unacceptable needs, conceivably generated an enormous sum of sense of guilt. In reference to

sexuality and guilt, Francis Oppel suggests that Yeats understood the psychology of

tragedy, for the reason that orgasm (which engenders lifestyle and also means death of sexual desire)

enables person to overcome discomfort and, by extension, guilt and fatality (122). This

overwhelming perception of guilt resulted in a disillusioned and angst-ridden Yeats, and the

resultant frust bout led to, because Joseph Hassett terms it, an overwhelming

preoccupation with hate (Introduction viii) and a feeling of self hate. This (self)

hatred led a negative Yeats to contemplate committing suicide. Levine quotes Virginia Moore as

saying, Yeats dreame d that, walking along a path by a cracked wall a precipice, this individual

felt light headed and wished to toss himself above (130).

By Leda and the Swan, Yeats was preoccupied with death, both equally consciously and

unconsciously. Bernard Levine claims simply that Because his relationship with Maud

Gonne remained unconsummated, Yeatss thoughts fastened quite decidedly in his

later years for the themes of sex and death (126). A bridge that Levine doesnt seem to

wish to mix, however , may be the idea that Yeatss later designs do concentrate on sex and death

away of this sense of home hatred engendered by the remorse over his inability to live up

to Mauds specifications and, primarily, by the aggravation he experienced over Mauds unwillingness

to comply with his desires.

Some experts even deal that hate is Yeatss generative theory. Joseph M.

Hassett disagrees that Yeats used his hate to penetrate the uncharted absolute depths of his own

mind (Introduction viii). Ashok Bhargava (156) reaffirms this love-hate antithesis farrenheit

ound in later Yeats. Quite simply, Yeats consciously attemptedto suppress his physical

desire and failed. This inability led to a great unconscious resentment of the physique (Maud)

perceived as responsible for this kind of resulting guilt/self hatred. This (repressed )

resentment triggered violent tendencies and the afeitado scene in Leda can be, finally, the

sublimation of sexual impulse.

A number of instances exist to support the correlation among aspects of the

spiritual relationship and elements within the composition. Levine, again, cites Moore in remembering

these instances. During the summer time of 1908, Yeats saw a vision of Maud and himself

joined up with b sumado a a sort of phantom ecstasy, that was accompanied by an impression of a

swan floating in water. This was followed by a dream in which Maud reproached Yeats

because she could not break up some obstacle (127). One more time Maud wrote that she

and Y consumes had become one particular with inspiration and Yeats had appeared to her triumphantly in a

desire, after which the lady woke to a gust of wind blowing in her room and a words of an

archangel who declared that from her union a fantastic beauty could possibly be born, once she experienced

been filtered by suffering (127, 128). There is evidence of other such examples.

Yeats, the idealistic Romantic, cannot let go of the hope that Maud will one

time become a inclined participant, bodily. Yeats will need to have hoped that his consistent

passion and intensity could eventually convince her to offer in. Components from the l

ust-noted case would support this wish and are present in the text in the poem: the

swan graphic, barrier graphic, the idea of unanimity through sexual union. At this point, could

Yeatss unconscious had been softening the tone (and implications) with the rape inside the

poem? These examples suggest that is indeed the truth. Additionally , as previously

pointed out, the sculpt of the composition moves from aggressive to passive. Furthermore, a hint

which supports the idea of a hope Yeats harbored lies in the revising process. Richard

Ellman notifies us which the poem went through several stages of modification. In previously

versions, Yeats portrayed the scene because an inarguable rape through which Leda is mounted

(177). In the later on, anthologized type of 1928, Leda has been given loo sening

thighs, indicating a type of faith on Ledas part. The implication in this

shift, after that, in language and tone in the final version of Leda as well as the Swan is the fact

the change is one of Yeats displacing his illusion that Maud Gonne ‘ d

at some point be swayed to engage him sexually and would get a willing, in the event that passive

individual. In the earlier types, Yeats was displacing his aggression. Inside the

final revised version, Maud Gonne since Leda usually takes an active response role.

Finally, Leda and the Swan is known as a violent poem and can be known as Yeatss very own

particular rape fantasy, nevertheless , it remains an object of beauty. An in depth reading of

the text centering on the oppositions inherent inside the poem, put together with an

appreciate ing with the circumstances adjacent Yeatss religious marriage to Maud Gonne

shows the poem to become a manifestation with the conflict between reality and ideal, human being

and keen that Yeats spent years trying to get back together. The composition allows Yeats to

shift h is violent fantasies concerning Maud, yet it will so in a structured

controlled manner (ensuring safety), and it enables Yeats to, finally, retain a certain

sum of romantic hope. Leda and the Swan was Yeatss only genuine alternative to

the conflict in his life, as a form of self therapy, this remains an almost perfect

work of art.

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