Do NOT Go Gentle Into Life

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas in a nutshell, is a poem that speaks of the inevitability of death, the acceptance of it, and how despite of its imminent approach each day, we should face it like brave warriors and to not give up until the very end of our last breath but for me it goes beyond that.

Dylan Thomas, being the bad boy and rock star poet he was, he neither believed in God, nor in the afterlife, which lead me to realize that he is essentially an existentialist poet who believed in defining his own meaning in life and making his own choices.

When I first read the poem, the first thing I thought right after finishing it was about a quote from Woody Allen's movie "Magic in the Moonlight": 

Based on that quote, what is the point on living at all? If you think of it that way, humans are born to die later on and we grow knowing this with certainty.  But what this poem aims to express, for me at least is a philosophy of life that is applicable to every situation.  Take for example the stanza 2:

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

I interpret this stanza as:  every smart person knows that death is unavoidable, but this is no reason for them to willingly accept it, yet this so called cleaver man should fight against death until the last moment. You may wonder why he should, and the answer it is that despite of the fact of him being clever man, he haven’t really made a mark in or on the world to remembered for.

Such stanza led me again to think about existentiality and the quote of the book. So, again what is the point on being alive if you know you will die no matter what you do? Well as for what I read (the poem), the importance of being alive is to make it count. Meaning that if you have the chance of doing something important which may transcend your own existence, do it no matter the difficulties- because death will come at the end and you may regret not having done something useful with your live, something worth to risk your life for, something to be remembered for when death arrive. And even there the clever man will not be conform with what he has done during his life since we as humans will always want to give more, thus  still no man should go gentle into the good night because all men deserve the opportunity to share what they have learn though life.

Another stanza which resulted in a great advice is stanza number 5:

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

Since it refers to death as, as I already said, something imminent nevertheless we can choose whether we die kicking and screaming, peacefully and quiet, nervous and scare. In other words is our decision how we are going to take our last breath, how we will face death.

This stanza however refer to death, can also be applied to a wide variety of situations where something inevitable is going to happen.  Take for example life; if you are alive, you can’t avoid living, what you can do is choose the way you are going to live. As Sartre states: "At first [Man] is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be."

To wrap up, I’ll go back to Stanley’s quote in Woddy Allen’s movie, “you are born you commit no crime and then you are sentenced to death” I translate this as if we are condemned to die since the very first day we are born, then why bother at all. This is essentially truth, yet I must say that Dylan Thomas’s poem taught me something of which I am not always aware. That is that you are the owner of your decisions, not only to the topic he refers to (the death) but in every aspect of life you are the one who get to choose your own path to go through despite the absurd condition of humankind branded by  the unavoidable death. 

Existentialism information taken from: http://www.iep.utm.edu/existent/

Wilfred Owen’s sexual orientation.

Wilfred Owen was a British poet and soldier who participated in the First World War and captured the horror of the war through his poems. That is why, he is considered the most important war poet of the first half of the 20th century. He has been honored for his work as well as his bravery since his tragic death on November 4th, 1918 — seven days before the war ended. However, there is one aspect of his life that still not clear enough and it has to do with his sexuality. It seems to exist some disagreement between historians who described Owen’s sexual preference as “a non-declared homosexual” or even explained that there is not enough evidence to know it. In addition, Harold Owen, his brother, stated once that he was “a celibate”. Hence, what is the truth in relation with Owen’s sexuality and why is important to know?

On the one hand, there are several facts about Owen’s life that could suggest us that he was homosexual. To begin with, his relationship with Siegfried Sassoon — another British war poet. Owen met Sassoon while he was being treated in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh after suffering a shell shock during the war. Since then, Sassoon influenced in Owen’s life in all sense, up to the point of considering him a “hero”. Even though, his relationship could be seen as just friends, Sassoon introduced Owen to homosexual circle of friends in London where he met famous gay people of the period (Some of them confirmed Owen’s homosexuality). 

Another important fact is related with his poems. Owen tend to use homoerotism as a main topic of various poems as you can read in “Maundy Thursday”:

Between the brown hands of a server-lad

The silver cross was offered to be kissed.

The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,

And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.

(And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)

Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had,

(And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.)

Young children came, with eager lips and glad.

(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)

Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte.

Above the crucifix I bent my head:

The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead:

And yet I bowed, yea, kissed - my lips did cling.

(I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.)”

Also, letters were sent by Owen to Sassoon as they caught up during war (some letters with a  strong love tone):

[2nd Manchester Regt.]

10 October 1918

Very dear Siegfried, 

          Your letter reached me at the exact moment it was most needed – when we had come far enough out of the line to feel the misery of billets; and I had been seized with writer's cramp after making out my casualty reports. (I'm O.C. D Coy). 

          The Batt. had a sheer time last week. I can find no better epithet: because I cannot say I suffered anything; having let my brain grow dull: That is to say my nerves are in perfect order. 

          It is a strange truth: that your [book of poems] Counter-Attack Frightened me much more than the real one: though the boy by my side, shot through the head, lay on top of me, soaking my shoulder, for half an hour. 

          Catalogue? Photograph? Can you photograph the crimson-hot iron as it cools from the smelting? That is what Jones's blood looked like, and felt like. My senses are charred. 

          I shall feel again as soon as I dare, but now I must not. I don't take the cigarette out of my mouth when I write Deceased over their letters. 

          But one day I will write Deceased over many books. . . . 

                    Ever your W. E. O.

On the other hand, several facts contradict Owen’s supposed homosexuality. His brother, Harold Owen has repeatedly insisted in his brother celibate due to his dedication of poetry, even though, he always tried to protect his brother image. Also, as a major disaster as the First World War was, the main topic of “war poetry” could have darken the other topics.

Personally, I strongly believe that human sexuality is completely personal and it should not be important for the rest of the people because we all have the right to live it the way we want to. However, I also believe that clarifying Owen’s sexuality could help to understand and reflect his life through another different perspective: through love. He is mainly well-known because of describing the horror of war through poetry. But a relevant episode in his life was to meet his “hero” Siegfried Sassoon who changed his perspective of life and how to write poetry — not even mattering their sexual condition.

Nowadays, Wilfred Owen is still remembered and being honored as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and being more recognized by his homosexuality. On May 25, 2015, British singer Mika — well-known because of being openly gay — released in youtube a music video of his single “Good guys” which has a chorus where he thanked all the famous gay figures who have inspired him, and of course including Wilfred Owen.

What do you think? Should famous figures sexuality be revealed when they had passed away in order to understand better their work and life? What happens with our Nobel Prize for Literature Gabriela Mistral? Have the piece of news in 2009 of her homosexuality changed your perspective of her work?

References:

The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by C. Day Lewis (Chatto & Windus, 1963; New York: New Directions, 1964).

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wilfred-owen [Accessed 28/04/15]

Interest links:

http://rictornorton.co.uk/owen.htm

http://wilfredowenletters.tumblr.com/

I love my country!

Patriotism has been used by the military forces to make people join them, especially during periods of war, when more naive souls are dragged into the battlefield.

During World War I Wilfred Owen was one the many people who have been trapped in the deceiving image of patriotism and who have joined the army; he offered his life for the glory and honor of his country and, of course, his own.

Foolishly, Owen decided to go on what seemed to be a romantic adventure, to die for one's country, a noble action that ended up being not as glorious as he expected, and instead of glory it only gave him physical and psychological scars. But the fact is that this adventure would reveal the distortion of the meaning of patriotism to Owen, and it would make him realize that the "stay-at-home-warriors" (politicians) were lying and giving a convenient meaning to patriotism  in order to keep the war going.

His idea of what patriotism meant was torn apart by the things he saw and experienced during the war; death, sadness, deception, suffering, loneliness, anguish, despair.

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori." 

-Wilfred Owen

In Chile, many people have fought and have given their lives for what they have conceived as patriotism, which in a way is not different than what Owen went through when his  misconception of patriotism led him to fight a war; the only difference is that for Owen it made him open his eyes and protest against the fact that they were being used, and for chilean people nothing has triggered yet the search for the true meaning of patriotism. Is it dying for your country? Is it in glorying the fallen heroes? For many chilean people, patriotism is just celebrating the victory of our football soccer national team, maybe wearing a red t-shirt, or simply enjoying the fact that we have one of the highest skyscrapers in South America. Vain, but true.

We need to figure out the true meaning of patriotism, the way Owen tried to while writing his poetry, and do the things that would really project our patriotism.

The Harlem Renaissance & Music

A few days ago I went sightseeing in Valparaíso  and I found a very interesting mural which remind me not only African American people and their music, but also the poet Langston Hughes.  Langston Hughes was a poet, novelist and essayist and was known for participating in a relevant movement, the Harlem Renaissance.

In the moment I saw the mural I remembered what we have talked in class, the poem  “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes in which we can see the meaning and intention of the author through his poems. Many of his poems are related to the problems of his life, discrimination, prejudices for being African American and others, and as a result of these issues he left university and his program of engineering. In summary, what Hughes wanted to show on his creations was the trial of changing society´s perspective of African American people, a difficult task if we take into account the period of time in which he lived.

There are several African American singers whose music shows their beliefs and thinking about discrimination, equality, racism and other topics and many times we just go through that without paying enough attention, thus, being careful when we listen a song will allows us to enter to the world the singer wants us to be. That way we can realized the true intention of the composer, the meaning of the song and the change of perspective the song will provoke in our minds.

Valparaíso is a place full of culture and art that you can interprete as you wish

During the Harlem Renaissance, two influential people were part of the revival of this movement, Carl Dunbar and the already mentioned Langston Hughes. Both of them were very involved in the extension of the racial pride and the conservation of the African American traditions. In this process a new concept came up, called “Jazz poetry”, which involves as the name itself, poetry and rhymes in the music genre of Jazz. This style of music and others (blues, soul, etc.) were very famous in the early 20^th century; therefore, that is why they used this genre, because it was the most suitable match between poetry and melody.

Aretha Franklin is an African American singer, known for being one of the best female vocal artists of all times. If we take a look into her songs, we can find different topics shown through her hits, such as, racial rights in the US, equality, among others. She has been considered as prominent in the women´s liberation. The song “Do Right Woman – Do Right Man” for instance, is a claim for equality between men and woman in every sense, as well as the global hit “Respect”.

Taking a look at the past, we see so many problems in the US and the way artists that have been exposed to those situations convey their thinking into the way of expression (activity) that perform.

Dulce et decorum est and the long walk

Dulce et decorum est

"Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots"

I have decided to write about this poem because some time ago I have read "The long walk" by Stephen King, and what surprised me the most was the image of the marching soldiers that was quite similar to what Wilfred Owen suggests.


War had never been shown as what it really is, it was mostly about propaganda, as the name of the poem by Horace, who was an aristocrat, and who never really knew what being in war was like. "It is sweet and right to die for your country". This basically mean that you must feel honoured if you die for your country, which has nothing to do with Owen's poem, this poet, who fought in the First World War, ended up disappointed of the image everybody except for the ones who know what war is like. He doesn't want to be treated as a hero, he doesn't even know the point of being in the trenches.

My first thought after rading "Dulce et decorum est" was the long walk, as it gave me the same sense of violence, rudeness and reality. For those who have not read this book, it is about a hundred of young men who must maintain a certain speed in order not to be killed by the soldiers who were watching them all the time. As in Owen's poem most of these walkers thought it was useless to continue walking, even if they died because of it, in WW1 most of the soldiers thought the same. These were men "deaf even to the hoots".

“In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”

It means to me the war never ends for those who were in trenches, I think finally only who were there know what frustration is, those who killed people who didn't even know for what they fought.

Owen and Hemingway, Complementary Views from afar

During our classes we have learnt about two authors whose literature is built around wars, in particular, the First World War, Ernest Hemingway and Wilfred Owen. The former, a veteran American, is mostly recognized for his novels and short stories –despite the fact that he has written several poems-. Whilst the latter, an English lieutenant, became famous for his crude poems, written during the war itself.

"Luz stayed on night duty for three months. They were glad to let her. When they operated on him she prepared him for the operating table... He went to America on a boat from Genoa. Luz went back to Pordenone to open a hospital. It was lonely and rainy there... the major of the battalion made love to Luz... (Luz) finally wrote to the States that theirs had been only a boy and girl affair... Luz never got an answer to the letter to Chicago about it." 

A Very Short Story, Ernest Hemingway

Nevertheless, there has not yet been an instance to compare and contrast their texts in terms of purpose, context of production, the focus of the texts themselves, or the effect they had over the society of their time.

Both of these writers had a great deal of importance in demystifying and exposing the ugly truth about war based on their own ugly experiences (biographical style).

On the one hand, Owen's aim was twofold; First of all, to show death the way only a soldier could, to provide every subtlety about the new, terrible ways of dying that arose alongside a set of new slaughtering machinery such as the chemical weapons. Second, to raise people's awareness about the false heroism proposed by the government's war propaganda. 

"But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime… Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning." Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen

On the other hand, Hemingway, instead of writing about war itself, he seemed a lot more interested in showing how people coped with de desolation left by the war (in both: during and post war), often using in-city contexts in which people faced varied types of troubles while death was in the air. In his literature, he made use of subtlenesses in terms of lexical choice to provide with key information that allow us to understand the characters' background and personality.

All in all, these two authors, both fully commited to the truth in spite of living in opposite sides of the globe, have made one single cohesive and holistic brand-new view of war; a truthful and crude view that attempts to hide no more the pain and dust and smoke and ashes left behind by relentless evolution of the First World War and to undisguise the lack of support many people gave their governments.

Sadly, in our current world we are once again in the need of a lightbringer, a trustworthy storyteller who can guide us in the darkness put upon us by the media and the rotten governments. 

What do you believe would be the impact of the appearance of such writer? What deep-buried secrets are being kept from us all? 

 

References

Sherry, V. (Ed.). (2005). The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Drawings by Artem Cheboha; Lost and Forgotten, Ghosts of War, and The Old Man and the Sea respectively.

Epic Poetry

"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."


This is the way in wich W.B Yeats stars his poem about “Leda and theswan”; this is a story from Greak mythology in wich Zeus -in the form of a Swan- seduces a laidy called Leda. However Yeats was not the first to add the "poetic touch" to Greek mythology; There is something called "Greek epic poetry", wich is one of the oldest forms of literatures.

There are so many epic poems to talk about; from Homero's Illiad and Odyssey -wich are a must reading in every well-rounded education system- to Prometheus Bound and the " Divine Comedy".

The Divine comedy (by  Dante Alighieri) It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature and is about Dante's travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise but at a deeper level, it represents, allegorically, the soul's journey towards God; this hystory is taken by another poet called  T. S. Eliot; in his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", in wich also describes Dante's history.

But what makes the "Divine comedy" so good? I believe the perfect mixed between the beauty of the poetry (since it takes the "Prosa" technique) with the "epicness" of the Greek mythology.

Which others "Epic poems" do you know? 

Outsiders

"Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

'Eat in the kitchen,'

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America."

              -from Langston Hughes' I, Too.

We all know that African American people have had a tough history in America. They were enslaved, and treated as the garbage of the world. They were not seen as equally valuable human beings as white people saw themselves, and they suffered, collecting stories to tell. However, some of them got educated to demonstrate that the beliefs held by whites about blacks were utterly wrong. Through his poem, I, Too, Langston Hughes manifests his love for himself, an African American, and his people; and states that nobody should ever dare blaming him and his community for what he is. Instead, they shoud be ashamed for what they've done to such marvelous beings. 

I cannot help relating this poem with The Outsider, a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft. If you want to read it, you can click here. If you don't, I can try to summarize it for you. The story is about someone who has lived isolated from people all his life without knowing why. He lived in the ruins of an old and dark castle near a labyrinth-like forest, where trees are tall enough to block every source of light. He dreams of the colorful pictures of people and the world he saw in books (from which he educated himself), and one day, tired of the darkness and the seclusion, he decides to climb a sheer tower near him, facing the obstacles that appeared in his quest. After getting to the top, he finds himself walking freely in the world. He recognizes a castle and proceeds into its walls, where he finds people crying frightfully at the moment of facing him, evading him; and, where he encounters a ghoulish indescribable creature, which ended up being himself reflected from a mirror. 

I believe that if the physical features of the character of this story wouldn't had been so shocking for the people he encountered in the castle, they would had seen him as another guest to even develop a conversation, since he was able to elaborate thoughts as they could, to see the beautiful things in life, to feel confusing human emotions, and so the list continues. In the same way, if it was not for their skin color, African American people could had been treated with respect, and love. 

Seeing people that might look or behave differently to what others consider “normal” as outsiders rather than what they truly are is very common today, especially at school. Some students tend to discriminate those who are different, and sadly, most of them continue doing this as adults. How do you think we, as future teachers, could avoid this?

Destined to be raped or a burden she was willing to take?

For a number of reasons, Yeats's sonnet “Leda and the swan” became a controversial issue since the very moment of its publication. As I'm sure you know, this poem, in very general terms, is about an old Greek myth that tells the story of the way in which Zeus, the great Greek god, transformed himself into a swan, so he would be able to “have” Leda, woman he had seen bathing, naked in the river Furatos.

Even if we put a side the disturbing fact that this is a story about a woman “engaging” in intercourse with a swan, there are many other aspects that we should pay attention to when analyzing it. On the one hand, for instance, there's the way in which the woman is put as an object, violently submitted by a male figure and reduced to body parts by the narrator when he mentions her nape, breasts and thighs. Though the poem itself is not completely violent, because we are able to evidence some kind of sympathy and/or empathy from the narrator, especially when we see him trying to guess and understand what she is feeling and enduring, in the second part of the octave with questions such us-

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?”.

In addition to that, we also see the image of the woman helplessly trying to push him away, and at the same time she's put at an inferior level. She has no divine powers to confront him. Personally, after reading it for the first time there was still the doubt on the possibility that she was up to some point accepting her fate, especially if we consider this idea of destiny or fate being decided by the gods. Was she destined to be raped? Was she barely complying with her obligation? And if we compare it to the story and image of Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, and some other cases in which female characters have had to follow a divine order without having a say, is it the role of “the feminine” in history/religion/mythology/literature, to be used as objects of male's desired, or merely vehicles for future events? Furthermore, we could also say that this very same image of a narrator almost in a voyeuristic stand, watches and describes for us a scene as if it were almost a spectacle offered by Zeus himself.

Was Yeats aware of the presence of violence towards the female and feminine images in Western culture? Did he felt as the restless spectator of a disturbing reality? Some people argue that it's really evident that he wanted to flout censorship, because in the 1920s, Ireland was consider an extremely conservative place. This even led to the establishment of an institution the Committee of Evil Literature, which was given the power to ban written material that they considered obscene or that would corrupt the public moral of the time. Elizabeth B. Cullingford, a Yeatsian scholar who is also a known feminist critic, in her work Pornography and Canonicity: The Case of Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan, argues that “no one at the time seriously questioned whether this liberalism justified [Yeats’s] graphic description of the body of a woman attacked and violently raped by an animal. (Cullingford 1994)

The same way that some people think that the answer to the last question of the poem (Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?), should be a yes, and she foresaw the future awaiting as consequence of this event, or that at least she felt that it would lead to something greater than herself, I strongly believe that Yeats also anticipated the female discomfort with a male chauvinistic society, and supported it before it even started.

Is Yeats' Sonnet a FAKE Copy?

What if some animals are just transformed gods or goddess that want to enjoy a little bit life in the mortal world? And, is the real story related to the poem between a woman named Leda and one of this animals written by Yeats?

* The Author of the poem:

William Butler Yeats, the writer of the sonnet "Leda and the Swan", born in Sandymount, Ireland, during the 1860s was a one of the main men behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with others, he also founded The Abbey Theatre. In 1923, he was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature and was described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation". After being awarded, he is one of the fewest people that had completed their greatest pieces of art or wonders without failing.

"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?"

-Yeats-

"Leda and the Swan", as mentioned above, is a poem adapted from a story from the Greek Mythology. It takes the reader into old mythical times where god Zeus, who took the form of a white, enormous and beautiful swan, seduces and intimates with Leda, the Queen of Sparta.

* Do you want to know more about the story?

You can have a look in here and read one of the adaptations made by Dellz, an author in the Blog: "豪華なところ" (Gōkana tokoro) with some anime-like or Japanese-like illustrations that makes reading something fast and easy.

* What does the Swan represent?

The bird is generally seen as a symbol of freedom, it can walk on earth, swim in the sea as all humans do but, and something not less important and that is impossible for us is that they have the ability to fly into the sky. Some cultures think that this animal is a clear symbol of the eternal life; a link between heaven and earth. Another way of symbolizing the swan is by seeing it as an image of solitude, as other civilizations, 

* Is the poem expressing the real "truth" in a first-read according to what the real and Greek mythology story tells?

The real story, based on the story that was published in the Blog* above, is about a love conflict between two couples, Zeus & Hera and, Tyndareus (The King of Sparta) & Leda (The Queen of Sparta). In basic words and as a fast summary: Zeus falls in love with the Queen while being in love with the goddess Hera. 

The tale begins when on one day, the god saw an extraordinary beautiful and young woman by the lake and found her fascinating, so he desires her as many other women on Earth by those times as he usually "trapped" any woman he wanted and did what he pleased. But, while learning more and more about her every new second he stared at that marvellous body lying on the enormous garden the King had from the Olympus, he "falls" in love with her.

Zeus tries to make the married woman fall in love with him as he does with her by transforming himself into a swan and help her whenever she is in trouble or in pain, but sadly she never gives up on loving her husband until something else occurs and makes everything get out of control. 

Because of loneliness as Leda's husband is always fighting on war, Zeus begs her by the lake, where they usually met, to stay with him and accept his love because he will try to teach the lady how a "god's love" is. After all this happens, they start spending nights together, one after another while The King is away, following the "wrong" path of infidelity. 

On the one hand, the sonnet written by Yeats describes a male swan that apparently rapes a young woman without letting her decide whether accept it or not but, on the other hand, the story tells us a love story mixed with another one because of a confusing feeling of "love" from a god to a mortal already married. 

Is the adaptation of Yeats the opposite of what the main story tries to express, or is it that he tries to communicate the same but somewhat fails to do when fast readers take a quick look to his poem? Here we have the poem again to make sure what is he trying to state:

"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?(...)"

Doesn't she seem a little bit scared? The story is shortened into the act of mating as animals, showing somehow the female terrified waiting for was is meant to be, everything happens in just a sudden blow so, the authors transforms the event and the whole tale into a mating sonnet where two animals, a mammal or human being and a bird (swan) are just trying to reproduce. As this is a fictitious story and poem, she gets pregnant without questioning the difference in race type giving birth two her 2 first children (human beings), Castor a mortal and Pollux an inmortal as his father.

As a conclusion, Yeats may not truly use the whole story with all its events as they occurred but he gets the essence and tries to use it to create something new and artistic when Modernism was on its apex. He may not describe the events as they where happening but what he does is to simplify them and make them one within the final result. 

In my point of view, I believe that if there are many ways to see things in life, there are also tons more to see or do things, one of these can be adapting or creating new texts using he same skeleton but reconstructing from ashes to create a new and unique whole body. There is no wrong way but a right way that is:

Notes:

* I believe it is worthy mentionable that there are many adaptations and interpretations of the mythological story, I based my discussion on the one I read at Gōkana tokoro's Blog because it was illustrated, it was catchy and it may help my readers to understand things better and, as said before, faster.