sensuality in "the tower"

Another thing I noticed after reading "The Tower" is that sensuality is a recurring topic throughout the work. In "The Mermaid" he writes,

A mermaid found a swimming lad,

Picked him for her own,

Pressed her body to his body,

Laughed; and plunging down

Forgot in cruel happiness

That even lovers drown.

Yeats also wrote a poem called “Leda and the Swan,” which is based on the Greek myth in which Zeus, in the form of a swan, has sex with Leda.

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 things?

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?

That’s a pretty messed up image.

Through his word-choice, Yeats shows some amount of reverence for the bird. He uses words like “great,” “feathered glory,” “mastered,” “his knowledge,” and “power” in describing the bird. This may tie in to the fact that the bird is actually Zeus and Yeats is treating it as such. Yeats depicts the scene as what seems to be a rape, although I do not know the details of the actual legend and it could perhaps have been consensual, which would be even more messed up. But nevertheless, Yeats molds this legend to be a rape yet also shows respect for the bird. He uses the words “staggering,” “helpless,” “terrified,” “vague,” “shudder,” “broken,” “caught,” “mastered,” “power,” and “indifferent” to set the scene for the reader. These words point to the girl’s helplessness and the bird’s control.