Leda and the Swan
- Leda and the Swan
A sudden blow: the great wings beating stillAbove the staggering girl, her thighs caressedBy the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers pushThe feathered glory from her loosening thighs?And how can body, laid in that white rush,But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders thereThe broken wall, the burning roof and towerAnd Agamemnon dead. Being so caught up,So mastered by the brute blood of the air,Did she put on his knowledge with his powerBefore the indifferent beak could let her drop? [End Page 66]
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865–1939), born in Dublin, is among the best-known poets of the twentieth century. His first book, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, was published in 1889; his other books include In the Seven Woods, Responsibilities and Other Poems, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Tower, and The Winding Stair and Other Poems. He was also a prolific playwright. In 1923, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.*
