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 desire to form an alliance.
             Yeats's use of alliteration helps the reader feel what the narrator experienced. His first sight of the falcon results in intense anxious emotions. Describing the falcon as "dapple-dawn-drawn" provides a sensation of heightened excitement.
             The rhyme scheme of the first stanza gives a sense of stability. As the falcon hovers, he does not stay stationary in relation to altitude. Beneath, the wind is steady but rolling, pushing him slightly up and down, but always returning him to the middle. The first "A" rhyme is followed by two "B", two "...