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Leda and the Swan

Leda and the Swan. Starter: Watch this war footage. As you watch, imagine that you are an author/poet living within this ‘war zone’….what would you think, write, do? Write a piece of writing that reflects your thoughts/feelings/views https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbbpJxEt5WE.

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Leda and the Swan

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  1. Leda and the Swan Starter: Watch this war footage. As you watch, imagine that you are an author/poet living within this ‘war zone’….what would you think, write, do? Write a piece of writing that reflects your thoughts/feelings/views https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbbpJxEt5WE

  2. Leda and the Swan Background • Written during the Irish Civil War • Modernist Poem (concerned with the relationship between man and his environment and the environment and the man) • Form is that of Petrarchan sonnet(14 lines into two parts, the first part being an octave and the second being a sestet) • Retelling of a story from Greek mythology • Leda, is raped by the God Zeus • In the story Zeus has taken the form of a swan. • Born of this rape is Helen of Troy. Her abduction years later leads to the whose abduction years later leads to the Trojan War. • Trojan War—long, destructive, lead to the destruction of early Greek civilisation and the beginning of a new era.

  3. Petrarchan Sonnet • The octave and sestet have special functions in a Petrarchan sonnet. • The octave's purpose is to introduce a problem, express a desire, reflect on reality, or otherwise present a situation that causes doubt or a conflict within the speaker's soul and inside an animal and object in the story . • It usually does this by introducing the problem within its first quatrain (unified four-line section) and developing it in the second. • The beginning of the sestet is known as the volta, and it introduces a pronounced change in tone in the sonnet; the change in rhyme scheme marks the turn. • The sestet's purpose as a whole is to make a comment on the problem or to apply a solution to it. • The pair are separate but usually used to reinforce a unified argument - they are often compared to two strands of thought organically converging into one argument, rather than a mechanical deduction.

  4. Language • How is a violent tone created? Look at: Plosives (short, harsh sounds)? Imagery? Verbs?

  5. Form and Structure How is violence conveyed in the first stanza (quatrain)? Look at: Language? Lack of Connectives? Caesura? Use of Enjambment?

  6. Language • There is a wealth of juxtapositions in this poem. How is the juxtaposition between power/strength and weakness/helplessness portrayed? • What does this suggest about the ‘relationship’ between the swan and Leda?

  7. Question • Some critics argue that this poem represents Ireland’s metaphorical rape by the English. How far do you agree with this view? What evidence supports your view?

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