Beauty and Violence Placing the Emotions of Leda and the Swan in Political and Historical Context - Literature Essay Samples

William Butler Yeats was an Irish Nationalist who wrote poetry all his life. His poems had themes of beauty and violence, Maud Gonne and executed freedom fighters. He had philosophies about changing times and the influence of deities, spirits and the phases of the supernatural world upon our lives. (Anon. 2018) Bringing many of these aspects together is, perhaps his most disturbing poem, Leda and the Swan. It chronicles the gruesome act of a swan, the disguised Zeus, raping Leda, a Greek woman. This essay will first structurally analyse the sonnet, before exposing the content of the poem from the perspective of the contrast of beauty and violence interpreted. Evidence from both history and the poem will be supplied to substantiate the theory as Yeats is, in essence, retelling an old Greek myth with ties to real history once again. It was not common for Yeats to write sonnets, but Leda and the Swan is Patrician Sonnet, but it is unusual seeing as the octave is divided into two stanzas and the sixain has a split in it as well. (Anon. 2018) There is a strange visual divide between ‘And Agamemnon dead.’ and ‘Being so caught up,’ in line 11. (Yeats, 1939) The first stanza sets the scene physically and the second describes in philosophically. In line 9 the act is done as the swan fills the girl with his seed and the poem takes a route into the future of what this consummation means. Helen would be born from this violence and that would start the events leading up to the Trojan War. After the shocking divide of Agamemnon’s death and the end of Helen’s direct influence as the cause of the events to follow the poem comes back to Leda’s perspective. It is almost as if Leda sees the flashing images of the future as the swan orgasms and now she is back in her own body. Does s he now possess that knowledge of the future? If she does, it still remains inevitable as the swan drops her; the deed has been done. (Yeats, 1939) Leda and the Swan is also an incomplete iambic pentameter as every line conforms to this meter of 10 beats per line with an unstressed beat, followed by a stressed beat up until the final line. Line 14 suddenly breaks away, just as Leda is released by the swan, from the pattern and consists of 11 beats. The poem began as a political metaphor, but as he wrote Yeats got lost in the holy and infinite battle of beauty versus violence. The soft, beautiful curves of the swan reflect in the water as Zeus approaches his victim. The soft, beautiful curves of the woman sway as Leda walks alone. That soft beauty is destroyed as the poem begins with ‘A sudden blow’ and violence takes over. (Yeats, 1939) The bird’s great wings arch over her, in line 1, making him seem larger and more powerful than a swan ought to be. The soft beauty is repeated as he gently caresses her, in line 2, while violently invading her. The two beauties meet with their soft breasts coming together in a violent, forceful embrace in line 4. How could this be? These two strange opposites coming together to start a cycle. A cycle of war and love. For her daughter, Helen, born of this deed would be lovely and known as the greatest beauty yet to tread the earth. That same Helen would spread the violence of her consummation by bringing about a war that would see Troy sieged for a decade and the great city in ruins. (Cartwright, 2012) The fleeing Trojans would settle in a new land, where Rome would finally repeat the cycle with the beauty of civilization and art and the violence of war and tyrannical emperors. Then there is the curious lack of divine allusions in the poem. The swan was Zeus transformed. Helen is given to Paris as a bribe by Aphrodite. (Cartwright, 2012) The walls of Troy were built by Poseidon and Apollo and Athena ultimately helps the Greeks to breach it. (Yeats, 1939) There is much significance in these myths and yet there is no reference to them save line 7 where ‘that white rush’ is an allusion to Prothalamion, a poem describing the same event by Edmund Spencer. Spencer mentions Zeus and his lust for Leda by the name Jove and also describes the beauty of the violent event. (Spencer, 1596) Did never whiter shew, Nor Jove himself, when he a swan would be For love of Leda, whiter did appear: Yet Leda was they say as white as he, Yet not so white as these, nor nothing near. . . The author is much cruder and brutally honest in his depiction of a scene which must have been violent if not romanticized. He does not consider the gods as war is ultimately the act of men and so this essay also will not dwell on them. Yeats wrote Leda and the Swan as an honest account of a woman’s experience and what that violence would later lead to. It would bring the greatest beauty that ever lived as well as the merciless slaughter and destruction of a once noble and prosperous city. Yeats used stylistic devices such as form and meter to aid in conveying the meaning and impact of the poem through form and meter. The spiritual cycles that Yeats saw in all of life are also evident in the constant contract of beauty and softness with harsh violence. The poem does not include the gods as this was a simple and horrific act between a woman and a swan. Bibliography Anon. 2018. William Butler Yeats, Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-butler-yeats Date of Access: 9 March 2018 Cartwright, M. 2012 Troy, Ancient History Encyclopaedia https://www.ancient.eu/troy/ Date of Access: 10 March 2018 Spencer, E. 1596. Prothalamion, Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45217/prothalamion-56d224a0e2feb Date of Access: 10 March 2018 Yeats W.B. 1939 Leda and the Swan, Poets.org https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/leda-and-swan Date of Access 11 March 2018

How Hemingway Has Too Strong Opinions On Homosexuality

Hemingway has extremely strong opinions on homosexuality, which Gertrude Stein attempts to dissuade by convincing him that those who attempt to assault young boys are not well in their heads. While Stein attempts this, Hemingway proclaims that because homosexuality exists, â€Å"you [carry] a knife and would use it when you were in the company of tramps when you were a boy in the days when wolves was not a slang term for men obsessed by the pursuit of women† (Hemingway 16). It seems that Hemingway does not realize that, when objectifying women, he turns into one of the wolves of which he is so afraid. However, Hemingway maintains his fear of homosexuality; he â€Å"ridicules an effeminate homosexual named Hal, satirizes Fitzgerald’s sexual uncertainties, and professes disgust at the lesbian practices of Stein and Toklas† (Kennedy 187). Hemingway is horrified by homosexuals, because he is afraid that he will be objectified by homosexual men just as he objectifies the women in his own life. He believes that leering after unsuspecting partners is only okay when he is an active participant; he is just afraid of being objectified and therefore, forced into an action against his own will. However, â€Å"homosexuality disturbs Hem, less because it involves alternate erotic practices than because it subvert his fundamental assumptions about sex, gender, and desire† (Kennedy 191). He believes that men are only right to objectify, not to be objectified. He believes that the gender and sexualShow MoreRelatedLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesby Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California USA in 1993 with ISBN number 0-534-17688-7. When Wadsworth decided no longer to print the book, they returned their publishing rights to the original author, Bradley Dowden. The current version has been significantly revised. If you would like to suggest changes to the text, the author would appreciate your writing to him at dowden@csus.edu. iv Praise Comments on the earlier 1993 edition, published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, which

Romantic Poets Views on Mortality free essay sample

He obviously believes in the proposition that life apparently is short with death and change being the only things that are certain in life. His poem shares the melancholy mood of Lord Byron in â€Å"January 22nd. Missolonghi†. Byron seems to mourn the loss of youth that is something which cannot be saved, when he says, â€Å"My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;†(Byron 5-6). Now that his youth is over, he believes his life is over and not worth continuing. It is as if Shelley and Byron are wishing to avoid the inevitable annihilation of their life’s force. In contrast, the eight-year-old girl in â€Å"We Are Seven† illustrates a belief in continuance of life on earth after death. She agrees that her siblings died. She however does not accept their departure from this world when she states, â€Å"Nay, we are seven! † (Wordsworth 69). We will write a custom essay sample on Romantic Poets Views on Mortality or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She believes they can still hear her talk, and she spends time at their graves. She does not accept the truth of their death, because their bodies are still near her. Each of the three poems has a different perspective on the way one dies. Byron has the most apparent opinion of going out in a blaze of glory. He proposes that a soldier’s death is the most noble when he writes, â€Å"A Soldier’s Grave, for thee the best;† (Byron 38). Byron obviously does not want to die as an old man. He seems to be wallowing in self-pity about growing old and ending his life in an uneventful death. While addressing himself, he reveals his own thoughts when he states, â€Å"If thou regret’st thy Youth, why live? †(Byron 33). He prefers a noble, sudden death, a death that he chooses rather than a slow erosion of the human body and mind. He implies that dying as a soldier is nobler than dying as an old man.On the other hand, Wordsworth describes the death of the two children through the eyes of the little girl in a matter of fact manner implying that death is natural, but not necessarily noble. The children’s deaths were the result of sickness and disease. The release of their souls was relief from the pain of this world when Wordsworth writes, â€Å"In bed she moaning lay, Till God released her of her pain;†(Wordsworth 50-51). He shows us through the innocence of a child who has not been corrupted by the fear of death that innocent faith reveals that death can be a relief from the suffering of this world.Shelley does not mention how a person dies, but he talks about the inevitability of it and the fact that every person will die physically when he says,† Or like forgotten lyres,†(Shelley 5). Lyres can be interpretted as the lives of people that are forgotten as they cease to have an impact on the world around them. Through this interpretation death may not be physical but the end result of a person no longer having any contribution to the society around them. The three poets have differing views of the final destination of the human soul. Their views range from apparent annihilation to the prospect and hope of heaven. In Shelley’s poem, death appears to be the final end of a person. As his final assessment of existence, Shelley states, â€Å"Nought may endure but Mutability. †(Shelley 16). Shelley makes no inference to the possibility of hope for a life after death. He says that no matter what a person may feel, think, or do, â€Å"It is the same! For, be it joy or sorrow,† (Shelley 13). In other words, what is felt, experienced, or accomplished in life does not matter. Since he believes change is the only thing that lasts, then he implies there is not any life after death. Byron has some clues in the poem that imply a belief in the afterlife. Byron mentions his own spirit when he says, â€Å"Awake, my spirit! Think through whom thy life- blood tracks its parent lake And then strike home! † (Byron 26-27). This can be interpreted as Byron agreeing to the existence of an eternal aspect to the human life called the spirit. Also, when Byron mentions, â€Å"And take thy Rest! †(Byron 40), this might be an allusion to eternal rest or a release from suffering for the spirit of a person in paradise.Wordsworth is at the opposite extreme from Shelley when he however espouses his view that a person goes to heaven when he writes, â€Å"But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven! †(Wordsworth 65-66). Wordsworth also mentions the innocence of the girl and her ability to understand death when he states, â€Å"What shou ld it know of death? †(Wordsworth 4). During the poem the little girl seems to be more comfortable with the death of her siblings than Wordsworth is. She still considers her brother and sister as being present and aware while Wordsworth would have them sent away to paradise.At the end of the poem, he gives up arguing with her when he writes, â€Å"’Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will,†(Wordsworth 67-68).. The three poets agree that we all will die and that death is inevitable for everyone. They however have differing views on the life we live before we die as well as the final destination of the spirit. Shelley seems to have the opinion that there is no personal consequence to how a person lives or dies or what they stand for during life. The only thing that happens is change. Byron has an attitude that wants to make a difference with his life as well as his death. He wants to be full of action, feeling, and purpose even in death. Wordsworth has a more sedate life to death view. He treats the death of the children as a normal part of life and the afterlife as the next obvious step. Since these are only three poems from their collections of work, the poets’ general views on the mortality should be deduced from their whole bodies of work