yeats and keats
Yeats's Leda and the Swan and Hopkins's The Windhover incorporate birds to represent superior beings. With the use of their superior powers, the birds initiate violent attacks on the weaker subjects of their domain. The falcon circles high then swiftly swoops to attack his prey while the swan, metaphorically Zeus, strikes then rapes Leda. The birds in both poems have divine characteristics; they are masters of their element and have complete control of their situation. The Windhover begins slowly with detailed description of the Kestrels flight: "High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing". Its narrative format gives the reader a first hand account of its perfection. Its beauty and complete mastery of flight stirs the speaker's heart that previously was in a state of "hiding". The sight of the falcon awakens feelings the speaker never knew existed. He recognizes its precision and power yet he also identifies the potential danger of its ability. The combination of "brute beauty", "valor", and "pride" results in an explosion of energy or "fire that breaks from" the Kestrel. Each time it strikes it becomes stronger, wiser, and "more dangerous". In calling, "O my chevalier!" the speaker reveals his desir
Helen and Clytemnestra, daughters of Zeus and Leda, later much more severe acts of violence including starting the Trojan War and murdering King Agamemnon. The first two lines of Leda and the Swan assert the dominance of the swan and the weakness of the girl. His first sight of the falcon results in intense anxious emotions. However, in the second stanza, when he begins to move faster and swoop towards his prey, the rhyme quickens. "Thighs" appears in both two and five but nowhere else in the poem. There is only one rhyme in the second half. Yeats's use of alliteration helps the reader feel what the narrator experienced. He wraps completely around her, absorbing her body into his. Breast to breast, the swan takes the back of her neck in his bill. However, the initial violence foreshadows future events. Both the Kestrel and the Swan mesmerize their spectators. Yeats connects the phallic "tower" with "power" thereby reinforcing the swan's status as a supreme being as well as his dominance over Leda and all females. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza gives a sense of stability.
Common topics in this essay:
Hopkins's Windhover,
King Agamemnon,
Leda Swan,
Christ Lord,
Trojan War,
Kestrel Swan,
Zeus Leda,
Helen Clytemnestra,
trojan war,
sight falcon,
rhyme scheme,
leda's thighs,
leda swan,
breast breast,
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Acceptance Essays
