Rhetorical Figures in Leda and the Swan Essay -- Leda and the Swan Ess

Rhetorical Figures in Leda and the Swan Leda and the Swan, a praise by William Butler Yeats, describes a rifle. According to Perrine, the source quatrain describes the fierce flesh out and the foreplay the second quatrain, the act of intercourse the third part of the sestet, the intimacyable climax (147). The shame that Yeats describes is no ordinary rape it is a rape by a god. Temporarily embodied in the majestic forge of a swan, Zeus, king of the gods, consummated his passion for Leda, a mortal princess (Perrine 147). The meat produced two offspring Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Agamemnons wife. In recounting this momentous rape with large consequences for the future, (Perrine 147) Yeats uses rhetorical figures in each of the sonnets three stanzas. The figures in the first stanza create tension and portray the event. All definitions for the rhetorical figures mentioned in this rise are derived from Lanhams A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Yeats opens with an example o f brachylogia, brevity of speech. His elliptical fragment, A sudden knock, recreates the stunning impact and tension of the assault. The poet uses alliteration in the body-build of consonance the plosive b first comprise in blow subtly batters the ear throughout the quatrain--beating, bill, and breast, which occurs twice the initial g found in great echoes in girl and an initial h repeats in her, which occurs three times, he, holds, helpless, and his. Yeats ends the first line with beating still, an example of anastrophe, a diverseness of hyperbaton, the unusual musical arrangement of words or clauses within a sentence, much for poetic effect. The figure not only creates tension through arrangement but also throug... ...idled sexual passion, the coexistence of power and wisdom in compassionate life, and the potential for combining youthful vitality and passion with mature knowledge and wisdom. Works Cited Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. 2nd ed. Berkeley U of California P. 1991. 1-161. Perrine, Laurence. Instructors manual to Accompany Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. 4th ed. forward-looking York Harcourt. 1983. 147-48. Yeats, William Butler. Leda and the Swan. Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. 4th ed. Ed. Laurence Perrine. New York Harcourt. 1983. 636 The Spiritual Marriage of Maud Gonne and W.B Yeats (excerpt from Women of the Golden Dawn Rebels and Priestesses by Mary K. Greer--an card of Yeatss fascination with the beautiful Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, who inspired his greatest meter and plays))