Leda and the Swan

The poem opens with the moment when Zeus, appearing in the form of a swan, seizes Queen Leda. The speaker emphasizes the swiftness and brutality of the act, describing it as “A sudden blow” (Line 1), with “the great wings beating still / Above the staggering girl” (Lines 1-2). Since the encounter is a “sudden blow” that leaves Leda “staggering,” the act’s sexual violence is immediately clear, while the speaker’s description of Leda as a “girl” instead of a woman stresses her youth and innocence. The image of the swan (Zeus) “beating” his wings “Above” Leda also establishes the hierarchy between them, in which the swan’s dominant posture reinforces his stature as the animal form of a god who overpowers mortals at will. Leda’s helplessness continues in the following two lines, with “her nape caught in his bill” (Line 3, italics added), with the word “caught” suggesting the god’s predation. The stanza concludes with the speaker describing the swan “hold[ing] her helpless upon his breast” (Line 4); there is no possibility of escape for Leda.

In the second stanza, the speaker poses two related rhetorical questions. The first