"Leda and the Swan Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces the mortal woman Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to"
"Leda and the Swan (Leonardo) The story of Leda and the Swan was the subject of two compositions by Leonardo da Vinci from perhaps 1503–10. Neither survive as paintings by Leonardo, but there are a number of drawings for both by him, and copies in oils, especially of the second composition, where Leda stands. Leonardo began making studies in 1504 for a painting, apparently never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. Three sketches of Leda by Leonardo exist: A completed copy of ""Leda and her Children"" by Giampietrino is kept at Staatliche Museen, Kassel (c.1520, oil"
"Leda and the Swan (Peter Paul Rubens) Leda and the Swan, by Peter Paul Rubens, who painted two versions of this subject. The first was completed in 1601 and the second in 1602. Rubens was heavily influenced by Michelangelo. He was introduced to his work on his journey to Italy. Rubens decided to go to Rome to make copies of paintings and further his studies of Italian art from the leading Italian artists of the previous century, later termed the Renaissance. In Rome, he encountered Michelangelo’s version of ""Leda and the Swan"". Even though Michelangelo’s version does not exist today,"
"Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo) Leda and the Swan is a lost tempera on canvas painting by Michelangelo, produced in 1530 but now only surviving in copies and variants. The work depicted the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan. In 1512 Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara went to Rome to reconcile with Pope Julius II, who had excommunicated him in summer 1510 for his alliance with Louis XII of France against the Republic of Venice. Julius absolved him and Alfonso spent a few days in Rome before returning to Ferrara. On 11 July he visited the Sistine Chapel,"
"Leda and the Swan (Copenhagen) A Leda and the Swan statue, depicting the classical myth of Leda and the Swan, was from 1611 to 1795 a major landmark in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue topped a tall column located just off the entrance to the naval Arsenal Harbour. The monument was built in 1611 during the reign of King Christian IV. Lauritz de Thurah's ""Den Danske Vitruvius"" (1st volume, 1746) incorrectly states that the statue was brought home from Kalmar as war loot. The monument was built on an artificial islet with walled sides, on a shallow-watered sandbar known as the"
"Leda and the Swan (Correggio) Leda and the Swan is an oil on canvas painting from 1530-1531 by the Italian painter Correggio, now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. It shows three scenes of Leda's seduction by Jupiter who has taken the form of a swan. Their first meeting is shown on the right hand side and their lovemaking in the centre, where Leda sits with the swan between her thighs, guiding him with her left hand. They are accompanied to their left by Cupid with his bow and two cupids with flutes. The third scene (again on the right hand"
"Leda and comes to court her in the guise of a beautiful swan. The poet feels that the Thames has done justice to his nuptial song by ""flowing softly"" according to his request: ""Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song"". The poem is often grouped with Spenser's poem about his own marriage, the ""Epithalamion"". Prothalamion Prothalamion, the commonly used name of , is a poem by Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), one of the important poets of the Tudor period in England. Published in 1596 (see 1596 in poetry), it is a nuptial song that he composed that year on"
"it in his summer palace of Sanssouci. It was confiscated by Napoleon and restored again by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon before being returned to Germany in 1814 and placed in the Berlin museums in 1830 - there Jakob Schlesinger painted a third replacement for Leda's head. However, the 1604 copy shows that even this restoration censored Correggio's original composition, giving Leda a chaste rather than orgasmic expression and removing the backwards twist of her head that Correggio had originally intended (similar to that of Io in his ""Jupiter and Io""). Leda and the Swan (Correggio) Leda and the Swan is an oil"
"Because Rubens was known for this type of female figures, Leda was the perfect subject to paint. Rubens became famous partly for his Rubenesque figures and were not common at the time, making his two ""Leda’s"" stand out even more. Leda and the Swan (Peter Paul Rubens) Leda and the Swan, by Peter Paul Rubens, who painted two versions of this subject. The first was completed in 1601 and the second in 1602. Rubens was heavily influenced by Michelangelo. He was introduced to his work on his journey to Italy. Rubens decided to go to Rome to make copies of"
"The Lilly The Lilly is a poem written by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794. The modest Rose puts forth a thorn, The humble sheep a threat’ning horn: While the Lily white shall in love delight, Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright. The Rose, which is a symbol of love and beauty, puts forth a flaw or a thorn. The humble sheep also calls to attention its horn or flaw. The Lilly, however, which is pure and white, enjoys love and has no thorn"
"The Swan (Baudelaire) Le Cygne (""The Swan"") is a poem by Baudelaire published in the section ""Tableaux Parisiens"" (Parisian scenes) of ""Les Fleurs du mal"" (The Flowers of Evil). It is the fourth poem of the section ""Tableaux Parisiens"", and the first in a series of three poems dedicated to Victor Hugo. It is the second poem of the section named after one of its characters. It is made up of two parts: seven quatrains followed by six quatrains in alexandrines. Its crossed rhyme scheme alternates male and female endings. Andromache, married to Hector —a hero killed by Achilles during"
"on wood, 128 x 106 cm). In 1508 Leonardo painted a different composition of the subject. The picture known as ""Leda and the Swan"" depicted a nude standing Leda cuddling the swan, with the two sets of infant twins, and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, probably deliberately destroyed, and was last recorded in the French royal Château de Fontainebleau in 1625 by Cassiano dal Pozzo: ""A standing figure of Leda almost entirely naked, with the swan at her and two eggs, from whose broken shells come forth four babies, This work, although somewhat dry in"
"in the novel ""The Ladies"" by Doris Grumbach (1984). Anna Seward Anna Seward (12 December 174225 March 1809) was a long-eighteenth-century English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield. Seward was the eldest of two surviving daughters of Thomas Seward (1708–1790), prebendary of Lichfield and Salisbury, and author, and his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth Seward later had three further children (John, Jane and Elizabeth) who all died in infancy, and two stillbirths. Anna Seward mourned their loss in her poem ""Eyam"" (1788). Born in 1742 at Eyam, a small mining village in the Peak District of Derbyshire where her father"
"The Owl and the Pussycat ""The Owl and the Pussycat"" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published during 1871 as part of his book ""Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets"". Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds. The term ""runcible"", used for the phrase ""runcible spoon"", was invented for the poem. ""The Owl and the Pussycat"" features four anthropomorphic animals – an owl, a cat, a pig, and a turkey – and tells the story of the love between the title"
"were derivative of the compositions mentioned above. The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France – Northern versions are rare. After something of a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very sensuous Boucher,), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with many Symbolist and Expressionist treatments. Also from that era were sculptures of the theme by Antonin Mercié and Max Klinger. Cy Twombly executed an abstract version of ""Leda and the Swan"" in 1962. It was purchased by Larry Gagosian for $52.9 million at"
"The Wild Swans at Coole (poem) ""The Wild Swans at Coole"" is a lyric poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). Written between 1916 and early 1917, the poem was first published in the June 1917 issue of the ""Little Review"", and became the title poem in the Yeats's 1917 and 1919 collections ""The Wild Swans at Coole"". It was written during a period when Yeats was staying with his friend Lady Gregory at her home at Coole Park, and the assembled collection was dedicated to her son, Major Robert Gregory (1881–1918), a British airman lost during a"
"away? </poem> In his LP ""Branduardi canta Yeats"" (1986), Angelo Branduardi sings an Italian version of this poem. The Wild Swans at Coole (poem) ""The Wild Swans at Coole"" is a lyric poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). Written between 1916 and early 1917, the poem was first published in the June 1917 issue of the ""Little Review"", and became the title poem in the Yeats's 1917 and 1919 collections ""The Wild Swans at Coole"". It was written during a period when Yeats was staying with his friend Lady Gregory at her home at Coole Park, and"
"poem by Tennyson. Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks, Anna Pavlova worked with choreographer Michel Fokine, who had read the poem, to create the famous 1905 solo ballet dance which is now closely associated with this music. According to tradition, the swan in Pavlova's dance is badly injured and dying. However, Maya Plisetskaya re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed ""The Swan"" at a gala on her 70th birthday). Eventually the piece came to be considered one of Pavlova's trademarks. In 1949 the American synchronized"
"""In Memory""<br> ""Upon a Dying Lady""<br> ""Ego Dominus Tuus""<br> ""The Scholars""<br> The Wild Swans at Coole The Wild Swans at Coole is the name of two collections of poetry by W. B. Yeats, published in 1917 and 1919. ""The Wild Swans at Coole"", a collection of twenty-nine poems and the play ""At the Hawk's Well"", was first published by the Cuala Press in November 1917. The title poem of the collection had first appeared in the ""Little Review"" in June of that year. Macmillan (London and New York) republished the poems in March 1919 without the play but with an"
"The Sea and the Mirror ""The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's ""The Tempest"""" is a long poem by W.H. Auden, written 1942–44, and first published in 1944. Auden regarded the work as “my ""Ars Poetica,"" in the same way I believe ""The Tempest"" to have been Shakespeare’s.” The poem is a series of dramatic monologues spoken by the characters in Shakespeare's play after the end of the play itself. These are rendered in a variety of verse forms from villanelles, sonnets, sestinas, and finally Jamesian prose, the forms corresponding to the nature of the characters e.g. Ferdinand"
"on the ground with her children. In 1508 he painted a different composition of the subject, with a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins (also nude), and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, probably deliberately destroyed, and was last recorded in the French royal Château de Fontainebleau in 1625 by Cassiano dal Pozzo. However it is known from many copies, of which the earliest are probably the ""Spiridon Leda"", perhaps by a studio assistant and now in the Uffizi, and the one at Wilton House in England (illustrated). Also"
"besmirched by duty, or any other thorn the rose may bear. The Lilly The Lilly is a poem written by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794. The modest Rose puts forth a thorn, The humble sheep a threat’ning horn: While the Lily white shall in love delight, Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright. The Rose, which is a symbol of love and beauty, puts forth a flaw or a thorn. The humble sheep also calls to attention its horn or flaw. The Lilly, however,"
"Leda Atomica Leda Atomica is a painting by Salvador Dalí, made in 1949. The picture depicts Leda, the mythological queen of Sparta, with the swan. Leda is a frontal portrait of Dalí's wife, Gala, who is seated on a pedestal with a swan suspended behind and to her left. Different objects such as a book, a set square, two stepping stools and an egg float around the main figure. In the background on both sides, the rocks of Cap Norfeu (on the Costa Brava in Catalonia, between Roses and Cadaqués) define the location of the image. The painting is exhibited"
"Pan Tadeusz Pan Tadeusz (full title in English: ""Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse""; Polish original: ""Pan Tadeusz, czyli ostatni zajazd na Litwie. Historia szlachecka z roku 1811 i 1812 we dwunastu księgach wierszem"") is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. The book was first published in June 1834 in Paris, and is considered by many to be the last great epic poem in European literature. ""Pan Tadeusz"" is recognized as the national epic of Poland. It is"
"The Clod and the Pebble The Clod and the Pebble is a poem from William Blake's 1794 collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience. <poem>Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair. So sung a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle's feet; But a Pebble of the brook, Warbled out these metres meet Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to Its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.</poem> The Clod and"
"a now-famous set of paintings depicting the ""Loves of Jupiter"" as described in Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"". The voluptuous series was commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua, probably to decorate his private Ovid Room in the Palazzo Te. However, they were given to the visiting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and thus left Italy within years of their completion. ""Leda and the Swan"" – acquired by Frederick the Great in 1753; now in Staatliche Museen of Berlin – is a tumult of incidents: in the centre Leda straddles a swan, and on the right, a shy but satisfied maiden. ""Danaë"", now"
"The Raven ""The Raven"" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further distress the protagonist with its constant repetition of the word ""Nevermore"". The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references."
"The Panther (poem) The Panther (subtitled: ""In Jardin des Plantes, Paris"") is a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke written on 6 November 1902. It describes a captured panther behind bars, as it was exhibited in the Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It is one of Rilke's most famous poems and has been translated into English many times, including by many distinguished translators of Rilke, like Stephen Mitchell, C. F. MacIntyre, J. B. Leishman and Walter Arndt, Jessie Lamont and poets like Robert Bly. It is used in the film ""Awakenings"" (1990) by the protagonist Leonard Lowe as"
"The Floure and the Leafe The Floure and the Leafe is an anonymous Middle English allegorical poem in 595 lines of rhyme royal, written around 1470. During the 17th, 18th, and most of the 19th century it was mistakenly believed to be the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, and was generally considered to be one of his finest poems. The name of the author is not known but the poem presents itself as the work of a woman, and some critics are inclined to take this at face value. The poet was certainly well-read, there being a number of echoes of"
"Catullus 2 Catullus 2 is a poem by Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (""c"". 84 – ""c"". 54 BCE) that describes the affectionate relationship between an unnamed ""puella"" (possibly Catullus' lover, Lesbia), and her pet sparrow. As scholar and poet John Swinnerton Phillimore has noted, ""The charm of this poem, blurred as it is by a corrupt manuscript tradition, has made it one of the most famous in Catullus' book."" The meter of this poem is hendecasyllabic, a common form in Catullus' poetry. This poem, together with Catullus' other poems, survived from antiquity in a single manuscript discovered ""c"". 1300"
"The Swan (1925 film) The Swan (1925) is a silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Melville Baker's 1923 Broadway play adaptation, ""The Swan"", of Ferenc Molnar's play ""A Hattyu Vigjatek Harom Felvonasbarn"". This film was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, a recent Russian immigrant working for Famous Players-Lasky. Buchowetzki had directed pictures in Russia, Sweden, and Germany. The story of this film was remade in 1930 as ""One Romantic Night"", an early talkie for Lillian Gish, and in Technicolor as a 1956 vehicle for Grace Kelly. This silent version survives and"
"the epigraph for Evelyn Scott's 1921 novel ""The Narrow House"". According to Pat Tyler the women in this novel have been ""hardened by her life experiences. Each is solely concerned with her own survival, hardened to the suffering of the others."" The Clod and the Pebble The Clod and the Pebble is a poem from William Blake's 1794 collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience. <poem>Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair. So sung a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the"
"The Hind and the Panther The Hind and the Panther: A Poem, in Three Parts (1687) is an allegory in heroic couplets by John Dryden. At some 2600 lines it is much the longest of Dryden's poems, translations excepted, and perhaps the most controversial. The critic Margaret Doody has called it ""the great, the undeniable, ""sui generis"" poem of the Restoration era…It is its own kind of poem, it cannot be repeated (and no one has repeated it)."" Dryden converted to Catholicism more or less simultaneously with the accession of the Roman Catholic king James II in 1685, to the"