Leda and the Swan

... Leda and the Swan The structure of the poem, Leda and the Swan, seems disorganized at first, but upon a closer look we can see that the last line of the third stanza, and the first line of the fourth stanza are actually one. By counting them this way, the poem is 14 lines long, and is beginning to show the structure of a sonnet. This brings us to the rhyme scheme of the poem, which would have been random is there were 15 lines, but instead it has a regular rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efgefg. The rhyme scheme and structure of the poem support the fact that the poem is probably a sonnet. Most sonnets can be divided into an octave and a sestet, as is the case with this poem. Not only does the rhyme scheme change after the octave, so does the pace and tone

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