Leda And The Swan

A SUDDEN blow:  the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs,

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

The original print of this piece (Dial, June 1924) had these lines lines 1 - 4A rush, a sudden wheel, and hovering stillThe bird descends, and her frail thighs are pressed.By the webbed toes, and that all-powerful billHas laid her helpless face upon his breast.lines 6 - 8The feathered glory from her loosening thighs! (the question mark was later replaced with an exclamation mark, The Tower 1928) All the stretched body's laid on the white rushAnd feels the strange heart beating where it lies;