Editing Leda and the Swan (section)

==In poetry==
[[File:Leda mosaic crop.jpg|thumb|right|A mosaic from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Palea Paphos [[Cyprus]]. Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. Around 3rd century AD]]
[[Ronsard]] wrote a poem on ''La Défloration de Lède'', perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. He imagines the beak going into Leda's mouth.<ref>Bull p.169; [https://oeuvresderonsard.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/de-la-defloration-de-lede-odes-320/ the poem, in French and English]</ref>

"Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet by [[William Butler Yeats]] composed in 1923 and first published in the ''Dial'' in [[1923 in poetry|June, 1924]], and later published in the collection 'The Cat the Moon and Certain Poems' in 1924.  Combining [[psychological realism]] with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape of [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]]. It also alludes to the [[Trojan War]], which will be provoked by the abduction of [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], who will be begotten by Zeus on Leda (along with [[Castor and Pollux]], in some versions of the myth). [[Clytaemnestra]], who killed her husband, [[Agamemnon]], leader of the Greeks at Troy, was also supposed to have hatched from one of Leda's eggs. The poem is regularly praised as one of Yeats's masterpieces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bloom|first=Harold|title=Yeats|publisher=Oxford UP|year=1972|pages=363–66|isbn=978-0-19-501603-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqpspMiPWLgC&pg=PA363}}</ref> [[Camille Paglia]], who called the poem "the greatest poem of the twentieth century," and said "all human beings, like Leda, are caught up moment by moment in the 'white rush' of experience. For Yeats, the only salvation is the shapeliness and stillness of art."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paglia|first=Camille|title=Break, Blow, Burn|publisher=Random House|year=2006|pages=114–18|isbn=978-0-375-72539-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNZ_LYCGSPsC&pg=PA114}}</ref>  See external links for a bas relief arranged in the position as described by Yeats.

Nicaraguan poet [[Rubén Darío]]'s 1892 poem "Leda" contains an oblique description of the rape, watched over by the god [[Pan (god)|Pan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Darío|first=Rubén|author2=Andrew Hurley |author3=Greg Simon |author4=Steven F. White |title=Selected Writings: Ruben Dario|editor=Ilan Stavans|publisher=Penguin|year=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings00dari/page/20 20]–21|isbn=978-0-14-303936-5|url=https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings00dari|url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[H.D.]] (Hilda Doolittle) also wrote a poem called "Leda" in 1919, suggested to be from the perspective of Leda. The description of the sexual action going on makes it seem almost beautiful, as if Leda had given her consent.

In the song "Power and Glory" from [[Lou Reed]]'s 1992 album ''[[Magic and Loss]]'', Reed recalls the experience of seeing his friend dying of cancer and makes reference to the myth:
{{Poemquote|
I saw [[isotope]]s introduced into his lungs
trying to stop the cancerous spread
And it made me think of Leda and The Swan
and gold being made from lead<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-lou-reeds-magic/149553421/ |title=Lou Reed's 'Magic and Loss' a requiem that leads to hope |first=Ed |last=Bumgardner |newspaper=[[Winston-Salem Journal]] |pages=50, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-lou-reeds-magic/149553442/ 51] |date=1992-01-25 |access-date=2024-06-17 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>}}

[[Sylvia Plath]] alludes to the myth in her [[radio play]] ''Three Women'' written for the [[BBC]] in 1962. The play features the voices of three women. The first is a married woman who keeps her baby. The second is a secretary who suffers a miscarriage. The third voice, a student who is pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption, mentions "the great swan, with its terrible look,/ Coming at me,/ There is a snake in swans./ He glided by; his eye had a black meaning." and repeats a refrain of "I wasn't ready" stating "the face/ Went on shaping itself with love, as if I was ready." describing the unwanted pregnancy.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://voegelinview.com/misunderstood-motherhood-the-poetry-of-sylvia-plath-and-sharon-olds/|title=Misunderstood Motherhood: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds|date=4 August 2023|first=Jessica|last=Wills|magazine=VoegelinView}}</ref>