ecargo7 Feb 2006

That's part of it, sure, but Yeats used myth as a metaphor for larger themes. And even the myth on which he based it had wider implications--literally sowing the seeds of disaster. He used a form that was traditionally used for love poetry, which was a shocking--and deliberate--departure that highlighted the violence of it. It's a modern poem, even now I think, far more than it is a traditional sonnet, whatever its structure.