1. The Second Coming William Butler Yeats Caceres, Maria Saheem, Sameena
Renovato, Maria
Mendez, Cecilia
Garcia, Valerie

2. Structure Blank verse Rough iambic pentameter
No rhyme scheme with heavy stresses
Religious poem
Divided into two stanzas
First stanza 8 lines (octet)
Second stanza 14 lines

3. T h e S 1919 c o n d C m i g W i l a m B u t e r Y s
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center 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?
1919 W i l a m B u t e r Y s

4. Definitions
Stony: covered with or full of small pieces of rock; not having or showing feeling or sympathy
Revelation: the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world
Spiritus Mundi: “Spirit of the world”
Vexed: Irritated or annoyed; difficult and much debated; problematic
Indignant: Feeling or showing anger due to unfair treatment
Bethlehem: City located near Jerusalem in which Jesus was born
Falconer: A person who keeps, trains or hunts with falcons or other birds of prey
Gyre: A whirl
Mere: solely or no more or better than what is specified
Anarchy: a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority
Conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion
Vast: of very great extent or quantity
Reel: lose one's balance and stagger or lurch violently

5. What is the Second Coming?
The Second Coming is a poem about the return of the second messiah and Armageddon/Judgement Day. The poet wrote this poem after World War I and during the build up of World War II. To Yeats, the war felt like armageddon and he believed people were losing their faith in Christ.
Ask the class if they know what The Second Coming is or if they know anything about it.

6. Interpretation
Prophesied return of Christ to earth at the last judgement
Medieval Falconing
Resurrection
Armageddon (chaos)
Day of Judgement
good people go to heaven (right hand)
bad people go to hell (left hand)
The Spiritus Mundi means spirit of the world and is a reference to Yeat's belief that each human mind is linked to a single vast intelligence, and that this intelligence causes certain universal symbols to appear in individual minds

7. Poetic Devices and Figurative Language
Caesuras:
“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”
Metaphors:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”
Falcon= Mankind
Falconer= Christ

8. Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center 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
Ar full of passionate intensity.
STANZA 1

9. 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?
STANZA 2

10. William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet born in Dublin, Ireland on June 13, Yeats lived in London for fourteen years of his childhood and belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority. He is a very famous poet from the twentieth century. William Butler Yeats was a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre and served as chief. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irish man. Yeats died in Roquebrune, France January 28, Yeats wrote the poem using imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Christianity to describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. he originally titled the poem “The Second Birth”