HomeModern Poetry The Second Coming -W.B.Yeats News Desk January 29, 2018 The Second Coming The Second Coming W.B. YEATS November 1920 William Butler Yeats 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: a waste of desert sand; 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 Wind 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? Summary Sub Topic “The Second Coming“ is a poem composed by the Irish poet William Butler. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and second coming allegorically to describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe (Alabi, 2007, p.35). The poem is considered a major work of Modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. It is superbly controlled powerful poetic comment not only on the first world war and the decline of traditional standards but also on the 20th century man and the new inventions of horror. At the same time,' The Second Coming ' is an illustration of Yeats' philosophy of history (Lahore, 1985:p.175). Finally, in writing this poem, Yeats was able to choose words, which to an appreciable extent were the right ones to reveal, grieve emotions that was its purpose. The Second Coming Created With MindMaster Modern Poetry Poem Poetry Analyze W. B. Yeats Facebook Twitter
