Leda and the Swan
W. B. Yeats, 1924
Yeats's sonnet on the Greek myth of Zeus, in the form of a swan, seizing Leda, which foreshadows the fall of Troy.
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 rushBut 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?