Leda And The Swan is a poem by
William Butler Yeats first published in
1924. It describes the mating of
Leda, mother of
Helen of Troy, and the
Greek god Zeus who came to her in the form of a
swan.
- A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
- Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
- By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
- He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
- How can those terrified vague fingers push
- The 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 there
- The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
- And Agamemnon dead.
- Being so caught up,
- So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
- Did she put on his knowledge with his power
- Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?