[289] The Second Coming
And as Y2K draws near...
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
|
from Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921.
A rather nightmarish vision of the Apocalypse - it sends shivers down my spine.
thomas.
[Links]
There's been a lot of Yeats done on this list:
'The Song of Wandering Aengus' was the very first poem I ever sent out, almost a
year ago - poem #1
'Sailing to Byzantium' - poem #21
- and 'Byzantium' - poem #60 are
masterpieces of dense, evocative imagery.
Universally beloved are 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death' - poem #32
- and 'The Ballad of Father Gilligan' - poem #237
My all-time favourite Yeats poem (and one of my favourite poems ever) is 'Red
Hanrahan's Song about Ireland' - poem #79
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <suresh@>
[submitted the above as a guest poem.. his comments follow.]
This is downright scary. None of the softer sentiments of Yeats' 'The
Lake Isle of Innisfree' or 'He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven', to name
just two. A much harder edged poem altogether.
Imagery that's a cross between the book of the Revelation and one of
those horror movies about an ancient evil being awakened after a gap of
several centuries.
Yeats seems to suggest that the *Sphinx* of all things (what else would
you find in the midst of a desert, with a lion's body and man's head)
will come to life - and seems to represent it as The Beast.
This poem has a sort of stifling effect on me - a gradual sinking
feeling that the world *is* going to the dogs, human nature is
destroyed, evil reigns supreme, and 'goodness' is all but non-existent.
There's a sense of gradual loss of control - a falcon spiraling up into
the sky ignoring the calls of its master, a sense of evil being
unleashed and going out of control.
We are left with the vague and imperfectly seen silver lining - a belief
that the second coming is imminent, just around the corner, that things
can't possibly get worse than they already are.
[Second coming for different values of 'Second Coming' - Armageddon,
Kalki Avatar, Qayamath ...]
-srs
--
Suresh Ramasubramanian + suresh <@> kcircle.com
Friday@ + http://www.kcircle.com
From: "Mellerowicz" <ewa.mellerowicz@>
Yeats gives the readers freedom of interpretation. The poem ends with a
question mark. Yeats seems to ask who will win the the battle in the
end? Evil, which is represented as the beast or Good, which is about to
be born in Bethlehem? Personally, I am hopeful. The Second Coming, or
the Apocalypse, is when Good ultimately triumphs over Evil. What do you
think?
From: MadDogHockey2@
thankyou for your website, im doing an english paper and it gave me some
useful information
From: Jdpassos3@
I think you people are really oversimplifying this poem. Yeats, in his
quasi-mystical philosophy of cyclic human history (see The Vision) saw
mankind as moving from a period of Christianity to one Paganism. The first
eight lines of the poem offer evidence of this change as man (the falcon)
moves away from God (the falconer), spinning away in a widening revolution.
Yeats calls out that the Second Coming of Christ must be near since the world
is so drowned in earthly sin, but as he does this he (metaphorically or
otherwise) sees out of the Spirit of the World (as opposed to the Holy
Spirit) the vison of the Sphinx, a symbol of paganism, awakening after two
thousand years of "sleep" since the advent of Christianity; awakened,
paradoxically, by the calmness and purity of the Christian soul.
The final two lines of the poem are not a "silver lining" as proposed by srs
or an offer to make up our own minds as Mellerowicz suggested, but a
rhetorical question: Why would paganism need to be born among men as Christ
was 2 millenia ago when it already exists, only needing to be awaakened
within humanity? the Second Coming, Yeats realizes, is not a coming of
Christ as we assumed, but a reawakening of man's animal nature (the body of a
lion) expressed in paganism.
Furthermore, this poem is not a ringing in of the Apocalypse, there is no
mention that the world is ending, only entering another phase in its history.
wec
age 17, Troy, NY
From: a scott <ascotteast@>
Hi I am writing a research paper on "The Second Coming" I was intrigued by your comments and thought you could help me best with my thesis my instructor's comments ask what am I proving. Yeats' prophetic tone in his poem “The Second Coming” rings truer to the cycle of history, between Paganism and Christianity, by the return of Paganism instead of the coming of Christ as seen in his natural and religious imagery.
Thanks Austin
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From: Jdpassos3@
Austin,
I am happy and flattered at your email. I am pleased by the occasional mail
I receive regarding that comment, and find it encouraging that a logical
interpretation for such a frequently misinterpreted piece of work can be
appreciated.
Anyway, I'm happy to help you on this point because, since you espouse my
point of view, by defending your work I am also defending my own. You said,
"Yeats' prophetic tone in his poem 'The Second Coming' rings truer to the
cycle of history, between Paganism and Christianity, by the return of
Paganism instead of the coming of Christ as seen in his natural and religious
imagery." The first problem to be solved is, I suppose, the question of
exactly what can be proven through an interpretation of any literary work. I
fail to see how a third party merely researching and reporting on such a
thing can be asked to prove or disprove anything beside the intention of the
author. So I have to assume that that is what your instructor wants, and
what advice I offer will be given on that basis.
In order to prove Yeats' intention, you have to first clearly understand the
theology and philosophy that served as the background to "The Second Coming".
Foremost, in order to understand a transition from Christianity to paganism
one must understand the differences between the two faiths and how they
relate to one another. I am not a pagan so I will be unable to comment on
the specifics of any particular brand of pagan worship. However, Yeats was
raised as a Christian and turned to pagan mysticism later in life, so by
tracing his flow of thought through Christian theology to the point at which
he diverged from it; and it is this which is the subject of "The Second
Coming".
Christianity is based around the soul. The soul becomes healthy by its
removal from the sin, which is inherent in the world. A healthy, virtuous
soul is close to God by means of contact with the Holy Spirit, which can be
described as the spirit of God on earth evidenced by a common thread of
thought in men concerning what is virtuous. Jesus Christ is thought to be
the embodiment of the Holy Spirit (therefore the embodiment of virtue), the
"Word became flesh", as Saint John the Apostle put it, given as a gift to
humanity from God in an effort to redeem mankind by the absolution of sins
through the Holy Ghost.
On the other end of the belief system is paganism. Modern pagans worship the
"spirit of the earth" as a god, believing it to be the ultimate force,
neither good nor evil. It follows that many of the more base human
tendencies that Christians would call sinful would be glorified as
reflections of nature. These would include pursuits of pleasure, luxury, or
sexual gratification. Many modern pagans (especially those Yeats associated
with) unlike their BC predecessors, do not dispute the ideas of Christianity
concerning God, but they do not worship Him. Early leaders of this movement,
like Alister Crowley, with whom Yeats was associated, considered themselves
Satanists in this right since Christians equate the Spirit of the World with
the devil (the "Prince of the World"). Yeats was certainly a Christian at
some point in his life and makes allusions to Christian faith in "The Second
Coming", which would indicate that he lends some credence to it, so I think
we can assume that he took the so-called Satanist view point.
So there the background is established. Now I will move on to the subject of
the poem itself. On the Rice website, I have to admit, I did exactly what I
criticized the other commentators for, I oversimplified the poem. The limit
in space didn't leave me enough room to explain it as fully as I am here.
The summary of my explanation was written out of spite for the multitude of
readers and scholars who, I believe, grotesquely misinterpreted Yeats' poem.
In fact there are two themes to "The Second Coming". The first is the one I
outlined in your school's bulletin, which I described there to my
satisfaction and will not pain you or I to restate it. I think the
distinction between paganism and Christianity should provide enough to
elaborate on the topic. The second point lies within the first. As the
world turns towards paganism, so does William Butler Yeats. The poem, while
it is on one level an earnest description of the change that is occurring to
mankind, it is also an earnest illustration of his own paganistic epiphany.
The opening eight lines illustrate the strife Yeats had seen in his lifetime
from a Christian point of view. They describe man as moving away from God in
a fatalistic, desperate tone, obviously not written by a pagan. Upon his
cries to God in lines 9 and 10, however, he comes into what could be
described as a communion with the Spiritus Mundi (Spirit of the World). He
receives a vision from the spirit of man in the same fashion that one would
supposedly receive a vision from the Holy Spirit and is converted. After
his vision he uses the phrase, "now I know," which suggests a knowledge from
some higher power similar to divine wisdom. In this new light we can assume
that Yeats was relaxed at the idea that, since there is no true good or evil
in world, only what is natural (nature is cyclic), there is no need to be
worried by events such as those are taking place. (Furthermore, there then
exists no need for guilt at one's own actions. After a woman turned down
Yeats' marriage proposal he pursued her daughter. When she turned him down
he pursued her mother again.)
After his vision Yeats is sure of two things: that history is repeating
itself, even if the new era is an altered form of the old one, and he is a
member of the "new paganism" (to use Matthew Arnold's term). This explains
the awe that fills the poems closing. An illustration of a "rebirth" into
paganism (as in a born-again pagan) will be filled more with fear and awe
than love for this reason: Christianity worships God in his love as a being
of supreme good, but pagans worship the Spirit of the World as a being of
supreme power. Furthermore, his cadence in the last phase of the poem
implies, I believe, that he is almost speaking with reverence to the Spiritus
Mundi and a quite disdain for what he sees as a flaw in Christianity. This
brings us to the final two lines in "The Second Coming", which are arguably
Yeats' most famous and certainly have the widest variety of interpretation by
scholars and readers alike. As such, any work on the poem cannot be
complete without explicit attention paid to them. "And what rough beast, its
hour come 'round at last/ Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" This first
of all sums up the poem's theme of a "second coming" of paganism as opposed
to Christ. Secondly, however, are the implications of the statement. The
Book of Revelations says that in his second coming Christ will not be to be
born humbly among men, but to come to the world in full glory. But Yeats,
since he has already established the true nature of this second coming, now
returns to this prophecy, pointing out that it had been partially right, that
the figure of the coming would not be born humbly. But it seems to me that
he half suggests the reason why this is true is because of an inherent
weakness in Christianity. Aside from reasoning that I've previously stated
concerning these lines, he seems to imply that paganism, a brutal and
powerful force, would not stoop to a meek coming that of Jesus. The previous
line referring to Christianity as a "rocking cradle", the calmness of which
stirred the Spiritus Mundi, supports my idea that Yeats had come to view
Christianity as week and its innocence as idealistic and impractical in the
real world, in which the Spiritus Mundi can promise satisfaction and earthly
fulfillment.
Well, that's the best I can do so far. I'm sure that more research into
Yeats' life and conviction can do a better job to prove these points. As it
is, however, my ideas are only speculation supported by what I do know about
William Butler Yeats.
If there is a single theme to "The Second Coming" it is a frank and earnest
illustration of both the transition of the world from Christianity to
paganism, and Yeats own transition. It is frank because it expresses both
points of view with the conviction of each, and his transitory vision with
awe and wonder. (He does not tell the whole story from the perspective of a
converted pagan.)
I hope this has helped, and if there are any points I have explained poorly
or that need clarification, feel free to write to me again.
Thanks again for your request.
Bill Cordts
Troy, New York
jdpassos3@
From: Toughdude08@
I have been deeply impressed by your knowledge of William Butler Yeats and I
was humbly hoping if you could help me learning something about this
fascinationg writter. I was wandering what, exactly, made Yeats begin this
restless escape from the antinomic religious beliefs?
Thank you very much in advance!
Dmitri
From: "Roy Waterworth" <firecracker40@>
I honestly believe this poem comes off a little ironic. It talks about
the second coming of what many believe would be Christ, however in the
end it say
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
This is clearly speaking of the Antichrist that is to claim that he is
the true messaiah.
From: "Jack Bonavich" <Father_Joaquin@>
Bill:
I stumbled on this website as I am doing some work on Yeats' "The Second
Coming"
I write by way of encouragement.
While I could find it easy to say that I essentially agree with your exegetical work here, and let it go at that, I would much rather say that I stand and applaud the very fact that you not only think but that you apparently believe that it is important to think and to think clearly.
If you in fact were 17 when you wrote this then I encourage you to never
stop writing and speaking your thoughts and observations.
Do not be dissuaded by those that will try to divert or detract. But be persuasive to those that lack the passion for truth.
You have something to say.
Hope lies in your generation since mine has failed so miserably.
It is encouraging to me to know that there are sober, serious and bright
thinkers of your age.
You can change the world.
Best to you in all you try,
Jack Bonavich
From: Cheekychic1111@
what in incredibly insightful and informative posting "The Second Coming"
poem. I would just like to say thank you for taking the energy and time to post
and to let you know its very useful material.
Thanks.
From: "Jessica" <dance04jesus@>
thank you so much for explaining that poem! it really helps out a lot.
you're really smart, i can't believe that you're the same age as me and
i can't think that well and hard. good job mate~
From: "Jasmine Li" <eureka_j@>
Wow..I am impressed by the various interpretations of The Second Coming
and I appreciate it. Here is my interpretation and some questions about
it.
I see the poem as being anti christ because he says" And what rough
beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be
born?" Jesus was born in Bethlehem so is Yeats saying Jesus is a beast?
While reading this poem, I feel powerless as humans cannot do anything
else in this drowning world, and only thing we can do is wait for the
second coming.
From: "Harvey R. Fields, Jr." <fields@>
I believe that this poem is a simple struggle a leader and his
followers, justice and injustice, and a struggle between good and evil
even though what is good and what is questionable. Each side thinks that
they are accomplishing something good yet they are not. The out come is
question able also that is why he ends the poem in a question.
From: "Csefalvay Kristof" <hsbs@>
I believe the "Beast" doesn't necessarily imply a negative role. In
fact, I have always tried to implement Yeats' poetry as Christian - in
this one, he presents the growing influence of sin and an impending
"Second Coming" that will cleanse the world from sin and error. The
second coming refers, in my opinion, to the second coming of Christ -
meaning his resurrection and Judgement above the world. Take the Nicene
Creed, for example - a basic tenet of faith in the Christian religion is
the return of the Christ to judge above all.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est, et
resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in caelum, sedet
ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, iudicare vivos
et mortuos, cuius regni non erit finis.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried,
and the third day he rose afain, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He
ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He shall
come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom
shall have no end.
This is of course no single feat of the Christian religion. I seem to
remember something similar from the Bhagavad-Gita, when Krishna tells
about the Avatars (this is not word by word, correct me if I remember
wrong):
Every time justice wanes and injustice grows, I create myself anew. In
each age, I am born again to protect the good, to destroy the wicked and
to restore justice.
In my interpretation, the Second Coming of the Christ is something
similar. The Holy Bible shows that God's bond with the human race has to
be renewed from time to time (take, for example, the flood - Gen 5:32,
or Sodom and Gomorrah - Gen 19:1-11). The Second Coming is, in my
opinion, not necessarily The End of All Things, but the end of sin, a
kind of cleansing, maybe The Scouring of the Shire.
But this is only my interpretation. Correct me if you feel I'm wrong.
Cséfalvay Kristóf (17)
Budapest, Hungary
From: ImAmixbeEnzI@
hii .. i was wondering if anyone read the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua
Achebe. He uses Yeats' "The Second Coming" as epigraph. If u have read the
book, why do you think Achebe uses the first four lines of the poem, and what is
it's relation to the thematic importance of religion in the novel and history?
From: "rowney" <rowney@>
bah, the beast that slouches towards bethlehem does not have anything to
do with an anti-christ or the laughable, jesus is a beast.
Yeats wrote the poem in response to all the anarchy and
deterioration he saw, the events of WW1, russian and irish revolution.
Yeats believed that history was represented by spinning gyres that
represented time and so forth, the gyres would begin with a cataclysmic
event (hint: jesus), as the gyre grows larger (time goes by) another
gyre is created that would preceed the first gyre, Yeats just believed
that this gyre would also begin with another cataclysmic event, and
because the world around him was "mere anarch" and so forth, that the
event that would proceed wouldn't be a positive one.
After reading his novel the poem is very understanding, although i
knew of Yeats being a pagan, i believe that yeats leaves you with a
question because yeats doesn't see himself as a prophet and cant answer
it himself.
From: "Lawrence Seay" <mav5455@>
From: Allen
With the subject of this poem being Yeats' cyclical time theories, I
must point out that there is one flaw in his thinking. I agree that
Jesus was born into the midst of the Roman Empire, being thrown in to a
secular society. Slowly that society has become increasingly "Christian"
(as the Roman empire slowly declined), to its climax in the medieval
period, with the church controlling all aspects of life. On the outside,
by name, this appears to be true. But these two facets of Church and
Christian couldn't be farther from each other. The church then was
filled with avarice and evil. Church leaders were abusing their power,
stealing, and just about anything else you could imagine. Though they
considered themselves "having to do with God", they were the best
servants for Satan that he could ever ask for. So my point is this:
Church does not always equal Christian, especially in those days in
which it became government and sought power and wealth instead of the
will of God. So is Yeats' perception skewed? For after Jesus' death and
the emergence of His church, it was a strong dwelling place for the
spirit of God and remained separate from government, unlike the medieval
church. I believe that the church was stronger then, not at the weakest
point, or the early stages of the gyre. As the Bible reads in the new
testament, thousands of new people were added to the body of Christ
daily. Not trying to undermine his intelligence, for he is well
educated, but I wonder how much Yeats studied monotheism- not just
polytheism. It is know that he was into occultism and the supernatural,
but it seems to me that he hadn't cracked a Bible before he concocted
his time theories.
From: Exclusive1127@
Hi
I am doing an Senior English essay for my high school on the modern era
and the poem the Second Comming. Thanks for your comment, it really opened my
eyes to the meaning of the poem.
Sincerely,
Christopher A. McLean
From: "Derek Mooney" <dermoo75@>
Theosophy!
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From: "Terence" <fisherman@>
~ The return of the Messiah ~
Breaking News
Let it here be known that the returned Messiah has raised up a final
message from God, and it is God's great plan that this final message of
hope will reach all humanity, and I ask that you advise all to read
this message at:
< http://www.the-testament-of-truth.co.uk > or
< http://www.the-testament-of-truth.com >
Issued by Terence Malaher
Office of the Messiah
Pyengana. Tasmania
From: tilt tilt <nezitibraincast@>
Actually to be correct, the image most people get wrong is that it is the spynx that is portrayed "[slouching]." In revelations one finds manticores described as coming to earth before the arrival of jesus to torture the infidels before the end days. These manticores have the body of a lion, the head of a man, and scorpion tails. They fit much better with the Christian imagery found elsewhere in the poem than the sphynx does. There is no mythology blending, it is all Christian imagery. With the blame for the ensuing violence to come placed directly on Jesus Christ and God by Yeats.
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From: "ben" <benbulaya@>
I don't believe that this poem completely heaps the cause of
violence on to God. But rather we, as a collective social community have
brought it on ourselves. The first stanza points out that there are no
more innocent human beings anymore, they are all "drowned", or perhaps
that innocence is so far out of humanities reach that even the ceremony
is no longer reachable.
The best part of humanity "lack all conviction", they are open
minded, but the worst are full of "passionate intensity". (Perhaps
suggesting that passion at a heightened level could be violent, and that
violence and intensity are the stronger of the two??).
This violence is again picked up on "And what rough beast, its hour
come round at last". Maybe it is not God, maybe it is our humanity....
our animalistic instincts that make us persue our passion, that had
finally lead us into another era......?
[Here are a few other thoughts]
I suggest this ideology as i believe that YEats is closely
assimilated to the modernist movement. I believe that this is important,
as this movement held a very dominant view point over the writers of
this period. I think what is important to remember is that through out
europe, especially immediately after the first world war many empires
collapsed. Most of Europe was in chaos. Monarchies, (perhaps most
notably the Austro-Hungarian) collapsed and left states.... and
countries in complete anarchy. Not only that but there was the Irish
uprising of 1916, in which several of Yeats friends were killed [and in
Yeats' opinion whilst they were brave fighters, he doesn't know what
they died for] also Russia was associated to revolution. Revolution is
violent. Perhaps this is what he means by "The blood-dimmed tide is
loosed, and everywhere".
Not only is revolution is violent, but so was the war. I think it is
something like 1 in 5 people were either injured or killed[can't quote
me but i think this is close], and this figure of tradegy effected
everybody. Everyone knew somebody who died. Think about that grand scale
of grief..... how do you explain that?
Of course christianity (and the collapse of it) is also important. I
am not suggesting that christianity is no longer valid, (as for many
people it still is), but what I am suggesting is that there arose a real
futility to existence. Thus , I guess, existentialism exists. But
christianity is only one side of the argument, there are definitely more
aspects to look at than this.
I guess I should stop waffling now, perhaps the point in brief that
I am trying to make is that you can not simply look at this poem in
black and white thinking. Yeats was a symbolist poet before he became a
modernist, he was exceptionally interested in the mystical world of
greek, but especially Irish mythology. He was living in an environment
that was exceptionally unstable, both politically and socially.
Individualism was not encouraged. Death and destruction was rampant
through out europe. Yeats himself belonged to a snobbish art form, you
had to have been resonably educated to be part of this movement.... (He
perhaps had facist values)..... etc etc. You get the picture I am sure.
Read all about these things and then analzye the poem... I bet you start
to ramble on about it..... JUST like me!!!
Tanya Lea
From: tjhughes@ Wed Nov 3 11:53:29 2004
I am an English professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee,
NC. A few minutes ago John Kerry conceded the election to George Bush.
Yeats' poem immediately came to mind. When I was a college lad my
professors thought the "rough beast" referred to Hitler (as AntiChrist).
Historically, anything having to do with the Irish Revolution makes the
most sense, but the poem certainly can be deconstructed as the reader
sees fit. Could Yeats see as far as the situation we are in today in
the Middle East, the desert sands, indignant desert birds, the dropping
darkness? I'm not much into that Nostradamus stuff, but I can't help
but see the President of the United States as the next rough beast, his
star rising on a bleak horizon. God help us-George really believes all
that Biblical stuff about the final conflict. I want to be wrong in my
reading of Bush's intentions. I don't want things to fall apart; I want
the centre to hold. I fear "mere" anarchy. I fear religious
fundamentalism even more, especially in the hands of a world ruler with
the capability to actually make the end of days come to pass. For me
the key word in Yeats poem is "slouches." None of us won the election.
Fear did. Fear, ignorance and stupidity. Three things organized
religion feeds on. The un-holy trinity.
Tom
peasporridgecottage@
From: "Cindy Lyman" <LLLyman@>
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Thanks Bill Cordts, Rowney, and Tom Hughes. I really appreciate your
explications and comments. (I'm a former English teacher, MA in English,
big fan of UK lit.)
On November 3, one of my friends emailed the first section of this poem to a
number of us with his comments, using the subject heading "The Election."
Of course, I got into a discussion with him about the entire poem, which
I've always admired. I also referred him to this web site, which I've just
discovered.
Tom's post came as an interesting and strangely satisfying coincidence,
under these circumstances. Thanks, again, Tom.
Poetry is an art form and people can choose to see whatever they want in it.
Fine. If it works for you, then enjoy it that way.
However, when explicating it for others, it is important to understand the
sources of information that go into the poem (or other written form), which
means understanding the writer and the times in which the work is written.
If one interprets a poem or other work from one's own biases, failing to
take its sources into account, one misunderstands the author's meaning and
shares inaccurate info with others. Yes, it is okay to accept a poem on
one's own terms, but to pass on to others one's biased version of the poem's
meaning is unfair to the poet. (I refer specifically to Christian
interpretations that fail to understand that Yeats had left Christianity
behind when he wrote the poem. It might be important to you to spread your
religious views, but don't accuse Yeats of having been promoting a Christian
view when he wasn't. Yes, he deliberately used well-known themes from his
Christian past, but not to promote a specifically Christian view of coming
events.)
An essential aspect of this poem is that it is a BIG question. The author
provides no answer. His question provides food for our thought. Let us
respect the question for itself and for the impetus it provides to our
search for meaning. It is disturbing not to know all the answers, but it is
more honest to admit that you don't know than to blindly and unquestioningly
spout traditional rhetoric.
My personal guess is that Yeats might have been making this point, based on
what I know about him and his times and my reading of the poem itself.
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From: Eric ADSL <cartwright@>
Hi there
I am a high school teacher and English graduate. I was busy setting
questions on WB Yeats Second Coming when I stumbled upon your analysis.
It has given me great insight into the poem - thank you, thank you,
thank you.
As the daughter of a Wiccan (a pagan religion) I would just like to
clarify that paganism and Satanism ARE NOT the same religion, in fact,
they are not even slightly related. Pagan's worship the Gods and
Goddesses (the sacred feminine) and believe in the cycles of nature.
They do not believe in or practice any form of sacrifice and do not
worship one specific person (as Satanists worship the devil). They
believe in doing only good, one of the first laws of Wicca are, "first,
harm none".
Sorry, I just wanted that clarified.
Thanks again for the wonderful analysis, it is greatly appreciated.
Michelle
From: tiajcthe4th@
<P>Here's something to ponder... has anyone read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe? </P>
<P>The title of the book comes from the third line of The Second Coming... </P>
<P>which has caused me to stumble upon this site in attempt to decipher the meaning of </P>
<P>this poem. Rather ironic in that rather than things becoming more centered on paganistic</P>
<P>beliefs, the story line of Things Fall Apart show an African village becoming dominated</P>
<P>by Christian missionaries.</P>
<P>Any thoughts and comments on the relation of the Second Coming and</P>
<P>Things Fall Apart would be greatly appreciated!</P><BR>
--
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<a href""http://mail01.mail.com/scripts/payment/adtracking.cgi?bannercode"adsfreejump01" target""_blank">http://www.mail.com/?sr"signup</a></p>
From: Angeldevildawg1@
i think that chinua achebe's included a part of yeats' poem "the second
coming" in his book Things fall apart because as some might know yeats is a pagan
as so were all the characters in things fall apart before the Christians
started dominating the tribe and converting them to Christianity which was seen
as a "rough beast" in the main character, okonkwo's point of view.
christianity was not a savior as the English thought to the "savage" that the were
trying to save in Africa, but to some to majority a "rough beast" that took over
their tribe and put a knife in their tradition which eventually made things
fall apart
From: Scott <joannek2@>
Yeats wrote the poem at a time when a deep pessimism had settled into the Western psyche. The carnage and destruction of the Great War had annihilated the myth of progress with it -- the belief that history was synonymous with human progress. This is evinced by the fact that, while utopian novels were fairly common prior to WWI, no utopian novels were written after WWI. On the contrary, they were all uniformly dystopian ("Brave New World" and "1984" as chief examples). Yeats' poem participates in that new mood of pessimism -- "the ceremony of innocence is drowned" pertains to the naive belief in progress now drowned in "the blood-dimmed tide" of the battlefields. Moreover, the Great War seemed to have confirmed Nietzsche's diagnosis of the state of the Western psyche (Nietzsche had prophesied great wars such as the world had never seen based on his diagnosis). Recognition of that mood is necessary to place the poem in historical context.
If the poem were simply an image of the mood of pessimism, and a sense of the apocalyptic born of that mood alone, it wouldn't hold such fascination or significance. The really interesting part of the poem is that it is both diagnostic and prognostic. The diagnosis is represented in the first part in which the integrity (order) of things dissolves through growing eccentricity or inherent centrifugal force -- possibly mind itself. The prognosis is presented in the second part. It is an intuition of the trajectory or the anticipated course of time based on the diagnosis of dissolution in the first part. This intuition and vision becomes fulfilled in Ginsberg's "Howl". Ginsberg affirms that we now participate in that which Yeats'only anticipated. The "nightmare Moloch", the "sphinx of cement and aluminum", now rules. Ginsberg feels it's presence as a real existing pressure on his mind, body, and spirit.
In other words, Ginsberg concludes Yeats' poem. In "Howl", Ginsberg denounces Moloch, and also sends a message back to Yeats across the decades, announcing to Yeats the fulfillment of his vision. Moloch, the "rough beast" has indeed been born, and has already established his empire on earth.
Longsword.
From: Baswellm@
I also would like to say a special thank you for all of your input
especially Jdpassos3. I have a better understanding of this poem. The information is
very useful because I am in the process of writing an essay for my 12th grade
english class. Good luck to everyone!!
Thanks
From: "Merry Lake" <merryl@>
Perhaps this poem is deeper than simply good vs evil. In fact, Yeats
may be making a powerful statement about the absolute and irrefutable
failure of Jesus and Chrisitianity. The failure of all organized
religions to do what they set out to do - to bring lasting peace, love,
understanding and forgiveness to humanity.
But the evil in men still rages on. Evil is not something outside of us
- it is rather - merely actions that we are all capable of. And yes,
the most prevalent and recurring form of evil in the world is WAR.
Killing of, and oh yes, raping of, yes, usually, innocent women and
children.
The hopelessness of humanity is what Yeats is expressing in this poem.
From: Ben Flath <b.flath@>
-Bb
Bremen, Germany
From: mdavis@ Mon Jun 6 11:46:39 2005
This poem seems prophetic in the following ways:
As the pendulum swings towards an apex, the visual assimilation of
things we call "cognition" or "conscience" may be what the falcon
represents. The "birds eye view", where we are only too aware of the
shapes of objects and mechanisms, and without regards to the deeper
consequences of manipulation, have lost the connection to the
unconscious.
The world of these ideational structures depends on the laws of
bivalence and duality. Polarization becomes the mechanism by which
objectification of these visual elements (the minds eye) are mapped.
When polarization occurs, the middle, ie: the "connection" between polar
opposites is lost. (falls into the void) One tries to deny existence
of the relationship.
The left brain attempts to assimilate every fact, every duality, every
relationship of cause and effect, and expects that it will be
successful. In the end, a logical representation of time and space will
result that will make sense and ease the pain and fear of unknowing.
This left brain has become zealous and passionate in it's
objectification. It really believes it can exist separately from the
instinct, sensing, feeling, non-visual side of things.
The beast is just all life sans consciousness. All life that does not
experience the self-awareness we use to build these tenuous ideational
structures which are in danger of crashing down. The beast does not
have a "minds eye", therefore will be born again out of the failure of
consciousness. Life will go on, the pendulum swinging here seems to be
that of conscience objectification, or building of ideational structures
which offer the illusion of detachment - and it is about to start
swinging the other direction - towards a dissolution of objectivity.
This might be interpreted as a rising up of feminine, mystical, earth -
bound ways of perception.
Now, thinking with the minds eye about the dissolution of forms is
almost too ironic. But it seems that these concepts - conscience,
visual thinking, objectification, or induction - processes that have
been identified yet all seem to have limits when it comes right down to
the main question - what is the purpose, what happens when we die, why,
etc... Let's say that mankind is the sole representation of this
"consciousness" or self awareness. When the beast is born, this means
the beginning of the end for this ability to use and manipulate
abstractions and visualizations. The beast is the collective,
unknowable thing which is universal and all powerful. When it appears,
it will deny any objectification. The laws it represents will sweep
away the temporary and limited structures we see as "the law".
Humanity will return to the earth, having lived a full and interesting
life of "self awareness" - now the individual will dissolve into the
void and become part of the collective.
.
From: cmccullagh@ Tue Aug 9 13:51:05 2005
I like Joni Mitchell's version better
From: BSloan@ Tue Sep 6 14:16:52 2005
I enjoyed reading this poem because it was good, im hungry and this poem
really hit the spot, I like blueberrys, hey look theres a book, what am
I writing about because I have no idea, I like the poem cat in the hat,
I guess that's not really considered a poem but more of a kids book, but
I like those too, one time I ate a pound of cherries and I dropped a
major duce right after that
From: <tokeloshe@>
My interpretation of this poem was always one of extremism.
The rough beast is the symbolic anti-Christ, not the
religious one. It is a poem about evil and war, not
Christianity and paganism.
The lines:
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.
The first is about war, clearly, the second what happens to
the boys who fight in a war, and the last two are about war
hawks and those who call for peace. It also hits upon the
fanatic and the moderate in those lines. We who stand on
reasons soil, do naught but our passions foil.
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?
This is the childish, simplistic joy of the soldier going
off to fight the war, to see something of a new age of
peace, and then his merciless disillusionment in the desert
of death. The desert is chosen for two reasons, it's
hostile, and it is in the mind's eye where you place
Bethlehem. The antichrist is the final disillusionment, the
final fall of man, when he who is evil's champion is born
in the same place as good was.
From: "Alieda" <liddyblandford@>
I am an English major and am writing a brief in-class composition this
week on The Second Coming. I just want to say thank-you, everyone's
analysis really clarified certain themes and the discussion provided
enough play for my paper. For sure. I thought that the "lions body
with the head of a man" could be a manticore, which in Medieval
Christianity symbolized the devil. I also wanted to add that in
Egyptian mythology, Horus, the falcon god of the sky, was often seen
clutching Shen, the circle of eternity. Interestingly, he was also
depicted as a sphinx. Again, thanks everyone. Alieda
From: Burbfabulous@
I would personaly like to thank everyone who posted their thoguths on this
page. As a sophomore in an advanced english class, the arguments tat i have read
have really opened my eyes to look deeper into the art literature than i did
when i first took a look at the poem and began to formulate an idea of what,
exactly, the deeper meaning was. Thanks again for the invaluable insight into
an even more (now) enjoyable subject of mine--POETRY!!
thanx ever so much again...
shaymaa
From: "Carl Klapper" <cpklapper@>
As these comments make abundantly clear, "The Second Coming" is a great
poem because, like any great poem, it means so much to so many different
people. Phrases jump out at you and take on a life of their own: "the
widening gyre", "the centre cannot hold", "the worst are full of
passionate intensity", and so on to "Slouches towards Bethlehem to be
born". There is very little filler in this poem.
And this denseness is all part of its meaning. If Yeats had wanted to
express just one or a few of the interpretations offered here, he could
have done so with an essay. I suspect that he was expressing each of
these interpretations and more in writing instead this great poem.
C. P. Klapper
---------------------
please reply by newnetmail: http://cpklapper.newnetmail.com
My ID is cpklapper