THE SECOND COMING William Butler Yeats Erika Meza, Kevin Almendarez, Jhonatan Orellana, Idalia Orellana, Janeli Escalona

William Butler Yeats Born on June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland Moved to England in 1867 to help his father further his career Belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland In 1885, an important year in Yeats's early adult life, he saw his first publication, in the Dublin University Review Yeats was profoundly influenced by the Irish nationalist and revolutionary, Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1899 Proposed to Maud Gonne but was rejected

CONT... He married Miss George Hyde-Lees in 1917 (having been rejected a few weeks earlier by Iseult Gonne – Maud’s daughter) He was deeply involved in politics in Ireland – he was appointed senator of the Irish Free State in 1922 and served for six years. Yeats was also a major playwright and a founder, with Lady Gregory and others, of the Irish Theatre (now called Abbey Theatre) in Dublin. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 He is one of the few recipients of the prize to write their greatest works after its being awarded. Died on January 28, 1939, Menton, France

History The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of WWI also known as The Great War it was a global war centered in Europe which began in July 1914 and ended in November 1918. 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died to the result of the war. One of the deadliest conflicts in history which paved the way for many political changes. The brutality of WWI was part of Yeats inspiration to write the Second Coming.

The Second Coming 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? 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.

Structure Blank Verse poem Has no fixed rhyme scheme Rough iambic pentameter. The meter is not compact, unlike many other poems written by Yeats Divided into 2 stanzas 1st stanza has 8 lines 2nd stanza has 14 lines

VOCABULARY The Second Coming- when Jesus Christ will return to earth in fulfillment of his promises and to fulfill the prophecies made about him. Gyre- a spiral; a vortex. Falconer- a person who keeps trains or hunts with birds of prey. Revelation- a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way. Spiritus Mundi- a term that describes the collective soul of the universe containing the memories of all time. Indignant- feeling or showing anger at what is perceived as unfair treatment. Vexed- difficult and is much debated; problematic. Bethlehem- is a Palestinian city located in the central West Bank; Christ’s birthplace

Diction & Tone 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? 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 Negative Positive Neutral

Stanza 1 The falcon represents society, and the falconer represents God. The falcon’s gyre is supposed to shrink as it comes nearer to the falconer, but instead the gyre is widening, suggesting that society is getting farther from God. “The centre” being the falconer, is an analogy to the fragile state of society’s connection to God after WWI, when traditional belief couldn’t hold in war’s unbelievable destruction. The sentiment being that man’s religion, philosophy, ideals, etc., the “center” of everything, will be abandoned in times of darkness. “loosed upon the world” sets an image of a flood of disorder Since the poem was written in 1919, Yeats is thinking here, undoubtedly, of the mass bloodshed caused by World War I (1914-18). “Ceremony” is a word with very positive connotations for Yeats; he associates it with the reassuring civility of custom and ritual. Here Yeats is referring to the constant fight between good and evil, or better and baser human instincts. In these violent times, good unfortunately seems down and out paralyzed or “drowned” as described in the previous line. Intelligent and decent people fail to act with confidence, while ignorant and malicious people run over society. 1.Turning and turning in the widening gyre 2.The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 3.Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 4.Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 5.The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 6.The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 7.The best lack all conviction, while the worst 8.Are full of passionate intensity Imagery Enjambment Repetition Metaphor

Yeats is referring to the Book of Revelations which is in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. This book describes the return of Jesus Christ where he will come to save his people from the beast during the apocalyptic end of the world. The book tells Christians to stand firm in faith and to avoid compromise with paganism. It also gives a series of events that will happen before the “Second Coming” of Christ. Spiritus Mundi is the Latin Word for “World Spirit,” it has some similarity to Carl Jung’s concept of collective unconcious. It is a phrase of Yeats own creations which goes along with other philosophies which are in his book named A Vision. Stanza 2 9.Surely some revelation is at hand; 10.Surely the Second Coming is at hand. 11.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out 12.When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi 13.Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert 14.A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 15.A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 16.Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it 17.Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. He’s talking about the original, archetypal symbol of the sphinx that first inspired the Egyptians to build the Great Sphinx in the desert. Yeats suggests that the body movement of the sphinx is moving the Christ closer and closer to the second coming. Spiritual masters are known to gaze blankly as they transmit "the message" to their disciples. Yeats equates this gaze and this transmission with the Sphinx, which he also uses to denote the Second Coming of Christ. Personification Imagery Repetition Enjambment

Cont... 18.The darkness drops again; but now I know 19.That twenty centuries of stony sleep 20.Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, 21.And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, 22.Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Yeats uses an infant’s sleep as a metaphor to the “Twenty centuries,” the amount of time that has passed since the "first coming" of Christ. the beast fulfills the second coming promise by Christian theology, but the beast is pagan and represents the anti-Christ The last two lines end in a rhetorical question Imagery Metaphor Enjambment

Quiz!!!! In the first stanza, what vision of the world does the poet express? What is the ‘’Second Coming’’? In a couple of words what does the Book of Revelations describe in the bible? What is Spiritus Mundi? What is the setting of the poem when it was written? What type of poem is it? Who published Yeats first poem? What does the falcon represent in this poem? Why is Bethlehem important? What does the infant's sleep represent?