W.B. Yeats “The Second Coming” Sabrina Celina Stephanie Salam

The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 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 ceremony of innocence is drowned; 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 out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert 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. 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 beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats Was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin. Ireland He was committed to those societies that strived for an Irish literary revival and was a part of the fin de siecle Yeats attended school in London and Dublin Firsts interests was art later abandoned art school for other pursuits. Was introduced to Maud Gonne who was a muse for Yeats he proposed to her various times and got denied He joined an organization called the Order of the Golden Dawn Got married to Georgie Hyde-Lees in 1917 they had daughter and a son named Anne, William Michael. Due to being one of the greatest English language poets he was awarded a Nobel Prize in the year of 1923 Was recognized for his dramatic productions In 1922 he was appointed to the Senate He was 73 when he died on January 1939

Form and Meter It’s written in blank verse with a consistent meter but w/o a rhyme scheme There 22 lines in the poem that are divided into two stanzas A 14 lined stanza that contains an octave Also written in Iambic Pentameter Doesn’t follow a formal tradition Most lines in the poem have around 10 syllables There is 9 enjambments and 7 caesuras

Literary Devices Symbolism: In the first stanza the Falcon symbolizes civilization. The first line shows that the Falcon is too far away from the Falconer to a point where he cannot hear him and doesn’t listen to the Falconer. This symbolizes the world is going further into instability and the chaos. Also, in the beginning of the poem the gyre is a symbol that reoccurs in Yeat’s poetry which is an alternation between two cycles one representing growth and order the other by chaos and decay. Allusion: In the second and first stanza Yeats uses a biblical allusion to the return of Jesus Christ yet also to the uprising of the Antichrist and the beast. Metaphor: In lines 18-20 a metaphor is being used when he uses “darkness” to represent the state of the world. Also where it says, “A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun” is a metaphor for a monster which can be a person whose wrongful actions will cause corruption in humanity.

Tone The tone of the poem is pessimistic, cynical and negative. Yeats explains throughout the poem how the world is being “drowned” which can be perceived as hopeless. The tone is mainly based on Yeat’s overview of Christianity being diminished and on how a new period is arising..

Lines 1-2 Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; In the first two lines the falcon is “turning” in a “widening gyre” to the point where he cannot hear the falconer. Furthermore, Yeats tends to use gyres in his poems to represent history by symbolizing chaos and instability. Line 3 Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; This line adds to more of the chaos that follows and represents a political implication.

Lines 4-6 Lines 7-8 Mere Anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; These lines describe a situation of fear or violence. It seems as Yeat’s referring to a future prophecy, one of Yeat’s dreams or a reference to the war in Europe. Lines 7-8 The best lack of all conviction, the worst Are full of passionate intensity In these lines Yeats is talking about the good and the bad. To Yeat’s the aftermath of the war in Europe is like that because you can’t tell apart the good from the bad.

Lines 9-10 Lines 11-13 Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. This implies that something is being revealed such as the Book of Revelation. “The Second Coming is at hand” means that Yeats believes that Christ is going to return and make things right. Lines 11-13 The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight somewhere in sands of the desert Spiritus Mundi means “Spirit of the world” Yeats was into occult therefore meaning he believes that individuals have a sort of supernatural connection towards each other. Furthermore, since he feels connected to the world he gets this vision that a he’s “somewhere in sands of the desert”.

Line 14 A shape with lion body and the head of a man, In this line he’s describing a sphinx, not the Egyptian sphinx but the original sphinx that inspired the Egyptian’s to build one in the desert which inspired Yeat’s. Lines 15-17 A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. These lines describe the sphinx expression. He uses “pitiless” to portray the sphinx image which is an inhuman expression. It’s also not capable of having empathy on humans. The word “slowness” adds suspense to the terror. The “indignant” birds usually fly in circles when something is about to die.

Lines 18-20 The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, The first line here shows that the darkness drops again referring to the Spiritus Mundi and that now he’s aware of something that he didn’t know before which is that the sphinx is a symbol that’ll carry on the future. “Twenty centuries” is referred to the time that has passed by since the First Coming of Christ. The last line he compares time to a baby, the cradle represents something being born and the nightmares are being referred to the European society and how it’s being affected by nightmares.

Lines 21-22 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? The sphinx is now being described as a “beast” that is journeying it’s way to Christ’s birthplace, Bethlehem to be born. Yeats uses the beast to convey all the bad that’s occurred in the twentieth century. The birth at the end is believed to be an image of the Antichrist. Also that the beast is a manifestation of the overall severe justice that our society earns because things have become violent and God’s solution is to dispose it.

Definitions Gyre- A circular motion; usually an ocean current Anarchy- Political disorder or confusion Conviction- Belief or opinion Revelation- Something being revealed an insight or idea Vast- Great amount Spiritus Mundi- “Spirit of the world” Gaze- A steady, fixed look Pitiless- Having or showing little amount of mercy or pity Reel- A cylindrical device Indignant- feeling or showing anger or annoyance due to an unfair treatment Vexed- Difficult or problematic Bethlehem- Jesus Christ and David’s birthplace in near Jerusalem