Disenchantment with the Modern Age in Yeats' No Second Troy Essay

The subject matter of the poem is violent and disturbing. Also, the sonnet is brief, thus, ensuring the rape will be brief as well. The organization of the poem shows the progress of the rape.  The first quatrain presents the assault-how the swan literally drops onto Leda, how he's caressing her thighs, and how he's holding her helplessly underneath him.  The second quatrain reflects her emotions-how terrified she was, what should she do, should she try to push him off of her?  The third stanza presents the ejaculation scene ("a shudder in the loins engenders...") Finally, the fourth stanza asks the question of whether or not Leda had the knowledge that it was Zeus in disguise and whether or not Leda knew what the intensity of what just happened- how Helen's beauty will cause the Trojan war and how Helen will launch the war of a thousand ships.  To show the intensity of what is being portrayed in the poem, one of the devices that Yeats used was the alliteration "brute blood" as part of the poem.

Additionally, the woman mentioned in the poem is being berated for being in loved, the most incorruptible and pleasurable feelings one could experience. Because fraternizing with the British is seen as a crime, women do not have any control of their own lives. By witnessing the young girl's moments before death, Heaney illustrates how the Irish rebellion affected many people.

Although both poems discuss Helen of Troy, both speakers’ withhold different perspectives within the first stanza. In “To Helen” the speaker sets Helen on a pedestal as he uses the apostrophe “Helen, thy beauty is to me” (Poe, line 1). He emphasizes that he speaks to her as the title “To Helen” sets the praiseful tone within the poem. However, the unimpressed speaker of “Helen” displays the loss of connection to this famous woman as

From the first few lines Keats alludes to the great romances of the previous ages as opposed to William Shakespeare's great tragedies. While it could be discerned that Keats is referring to his poem

    Briefly stated, William Butler Yeats’ The Magi is a poem about people who, upon reaching old age, or perhaps just older age, turn to God and the spiritual world for fulfillment and happiness. We are told in the footnote to this poem that, after writing The Dolls, Yeats looked up into the blue sky and imagined that he could see "stiff figures in procession". Perhaps after imagining these figures, Yeats debated within himself whom these pictures could represent. Yeats then went on to write The Magi, a poem which is full of symbolism, a literary technique that he greatly valued.

William Butler Yeats is one of the most esteemed poets in 20th century literature and is well known for his Irish poetry. While Yeats was born in Ireland, he spent most of his adolescent years in London with his family. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he later moved back to Ireland. He attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and joined the Theosophical Society soon after moving back. He was surrounded by Irish influences most of his life, but it was his commitment to those influences and his heritage that truly affected his poetry. William Butler Yeats’s poetry exemplifies how an author’s Irish identity can help create and influence his work.

Under my feminist reading, I see the poem as an attempt by the poet to exist as an independent autonomist woman by rejecting the traditional patriarchal ideology that women were subjected to at the time. Plath begins the poem with the line ‘stasis in darkness’, symbolic of the fact that women at the time were trapped in the darkness of patriarchal society. She uses the term ‘God’s lioness’ as a reversal of gender expectations to show her support for the rise of feminism.

The third stanza recalls the tragedies of the Trojan War in the future history: "the broken wall" (Greek forces breaking through Trojan defences), "burning roof and tower" (the visually dramatic image, where both Leda and Troy have their security violated), "Agamemnon dead" (an emphasis on the cataclysmic chain of events engendered by the rape of Leda and the birth of Helen).

The poem begins in a manner suggestive of a lover scorned. Yeats talks about how passionate women, which at this point in time is not necessarily a compliment, don’t consider love that is a sure thing worth their time and energy. Essentially it is a poetized version of the “Nice guys finish last” argument, along with the idea that people only desire what

Troy is seen as an unforgivable character because of his actions, but it is his actions that reveal that he is in a perpetual cycle of longing. Troy’s ongoing dissatisfaction with life, as a result of being a black everyman in the 1950s only adds to the anger and bitterness at life disappointments. The black everyman mirrors the pain and unrequited respect that Troy feels. Which is why it is important to note that in the

Yeats was a confessional poet - that is to say, that he wrote his poetry directly from his own experiences. He was an idealist, with a purpose. This was to create Art for his own people - the Irish. But in so doing, he experienced considerable frustration and disillusionment. The tension between this ideal, and the reality is the basis of much of his writing. One central theme of his earlier poetry is the contrast

The first women referenced in the text is Guinevere. She was “… gloriously framed at her place on the platform, pricelessly curtained by silk to each side, and canopied across with tasteful tapestries… studded with stones and stunning gems… but not one stone outshone the quartz of the queen’s eyes; with hand on heart, no one could argue otherwise” (lines 74-84). After reading this sensual and graceful description, it can be assumed that Guinevere is an incredibly beautiful woman, which places her on a dais while at the same time objectifies her for her beauty. Her involvement in the story revolves around her physical appearance which solidifies the Gawain poet’s intent to show Guinevere as a submissive observer rather than an active member of

The title of the poem is important, because it is the only indication of the characters who are the subject of the poem. In the poem, Yeats assumes that the reader is familiar with the myth referred to in the title. Throughout the fourteen lines, he never uses the names of either of the characters. Zeus’s name in fact appears neither in the title nor the text of the poem; the reader is expected to understand that the swan is an incarnation of the all-powerful god.

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, a dramatist, and a prose writer - one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century. (Yeats 1) His early poetry and drama acquired ideas from Irish fable and arcane study. (Eiermann 1) Yeats used the themes of nationalism, freedom from oppression, social division, and unity when writing about his country. Yeats, an Irish nationalist, used the three poems, “To Ireland in the Coming Times,” “September 1913” and “Easter 1916” which revealed an expression of his feelings about the War of Irish Independence through theme, mood and figurative language.

The fifth stanza describes the quality that Yeats came to see as at the very heart of civilized life: courtesy. By courtesy he understands a means of being in the world that would protect the best of human dignity, art and emotion. And in his prayer for his daughter he wishes that she will learn to survive with grace and dignity in a world turned horrific. He explains that many men have hopelessly loved beautiful women, and they thought that the women loved them as well but they did not.