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    The brevity and beauty of Yeats’s verses reveal poetry’s enduring significance

    William Butler Yeats’s sonnet ‘Leda and the Swan’ (1928) reinterprets the rape of the Greek mythological figure Leda by the god Zeus in the form of a swan. In just 14 lines and 113 words, Yeats provokes a powerful, unnerving aesthetic experience, using both language and form to explore the transition from ancient mythology to modern Western history. In this close reading, the American blogger Evan Puschak analyses the work in a historical context, and through the lens of Yeats’s views on the ebbs and flows of history as laid out in his book A Vision (1925).

    Video by The Nerdwriter

    8 October 2015
    Sepia photograph of the poet with long curly hair and a full beard and moustache. He wears a white shirt and dark suit, and has a thoughtful expression.

    videoStories and literature

    To capture grief in poetry is to describe the ineffable. Here’s why Tennyson did it best

    8 minutes

    A sepia sketch of a pensive person with the words “happy” and “for ever” overlaid in red and blue text.

    videoStories and literature

    What makes John Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ so enduringly powerful?

    10 minutes

    Black-and-white drawing of labourers working in a warehouse, overlaid with the text “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” in yellow.

    videoArt

    In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved

    9 minutes

    Minimalist painting of a figure hanging off a dark cliff edge with palm trees, set against a grey background, evoking a solitary mood.

    videoConsciousness and altered states

    ‘Then – fit our Vision to the Dark’: exploring sight with Emily Dickinson

    2 minutes

    Abstract painting of a person lying down in a grassy field with flowers, arms behind their head, eyes closed in a relaxed pose.

    videoNature and landscape

    The poet Wendell Berry reflects on the sublime peace of escaping into wilderness

    1 minute

    A serene landscape of snowy trees and hills set against a backdrop of a yellow sky and blue mountain range, with a bird flying by.

    videoStories and literature

    Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone

    5 minutes

    An older woman with grey hair sits with her knees pulled up and reads a book, seated by bookshelves, stacked books and a closed curtain.

    videoGender

    Why Medusa lives on – Mary Beard on the persistent legacy of Ancient Greek misogyny

    5 minutes

    Black and white photo of a man holding his tie and a woman in a hat, with the word “LOVE” in large pink letters in the background.

    videoStories and literature

    How E E Cummings’s most famous love poem reaches towards transcendence of self

    9 minutes

    Painting of a woman in a pink dress lying in a field of tall grass, gazing at distant buildings under a grey sky.

    videoArt

    ‘I built the ground thinking of her’: the story of Andrew Wyeth’s ‘Christina’s World’

    8 minutes