Leda

Published in 1920, Leda is Aldous Huxley's fourth compilation of poetry. The collection begins with the touching and a little sensual poem «Leda». The poem recalls the love affair between Queen Leda, the mother of Helen of Troy, and her swan, Zeus, in disguise. It commemorates the reunion of its male and female protagonists while actually restating the invincibility of perennial dualism. The collection contains twenty-six poems in total. Some short poems like «The Birth of God», «Sympathy», «Merry Go Round», and many more follow. Rough drafts of «Leda» kept Huxley occupied for almost a year. Though he gained acclaim for his later essays and novels, Aldous Huxley published poetry collections and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry in the early years of his career. Widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time, Huxley was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.