The Second Coming William Butler Yeats Isa Francisco

The Second Coming William Butler Yeats Isa Francisco Jin Maekawa

Context One of the most famously quoted poems of all Western literature Written in 1919 in the aftermath of WWI (shows us about ourselves), published in 1920 Based on Christian theology in the Book of Revelation or the dubbed as the Apocalypse Yeats’ beliefs were more Pagan than Christian Yeats believed in an apocalyptic moment, some link Hitler’s rise to Yeats’ ideas Received a Nobel Prize in 1923, whoo! Go Yeats!

Big Picture Major Themes Structure Language and Images Character Tone

The Second Coming Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiliess as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough best, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre 1 The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Gyre: important recurring symbol. Loss of control; falcon refers to the collapse of tradition Unraveling of gyre We are losing our roots and what has made us who we are. Disapproving tone, strong but not emotional, very declarative

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 3 Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ‘Things fall apart’ = literal representation of the situation Center= start of gyre Oxymoron: as is anarchy is aimless chaos. Ability to have faith and spirit is non-existent, aftermath of WWI Anarchy seems to be personified as a being

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 5 The ceremony of innocence is drowned; Repetition of ‘loosed’; Very primal imagery; gory, vicious, primitive actions= blood-dimmed tide Metaphor of water, “drowning” from chaos and fury. Collapse of what used to be. ‘Ceremony of innocence’ = losing hold of foundations

The best lack all conviction, while the worst 7 Are full of passionate intensity. Only the “worst” are able to have any sort of passion In reference to the gyre, it is at this point of the poem where the gyre is unraveled the most. Threshold of an apocalyptic revelation Center=democracy, truth, goodness, scientific rationalism Center= democracy, hierarchy, mysticism, primal power, art, war

Surely the Second Coming is at hand. 9 The Second Coming! Hope for a new savior: some powerful figure who will liberate and save us Such chaotic times must result in an upheaval or turnaround point; not necessarily Christ but an Anti. Christ Tone concludes with escalation Repetition may refer to exasperation

Hardly are those words out When a vast image of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: 11

a waste of desert sand; 13 A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. 15

The darkness drops again but now I know 19 That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Conclusion

Works Cited http: //www. shmoop. com/second-coming/ http: //www. wikipedia. org/The. Second. Coming