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Yeats' Poem "The Second Coming"

This paper is an analysis of William Butler YeatsÆ prophetic poem, ôThe Second Coming.ö This disturbing vision, published in 1921, uses vivid images, symbols, and allusions to create a frightening picture of a modern world about to be faced by the ultimate judgment of the return of the Messiah. As the United States stands on the brink of war, YeatsÆ words suggest an especially bleak outcome.

Yeats begins his brief, 22-line poem with the image of a falcon caught in the widening currents of the ocean, escaping the control of his master. This image could symbolize humankindÆs loss of connection with the natural world, as well as standing for world leaders no longer able to connect with those they govern. Whatever the specific meaning, ôThings fall apart; the centre cannot holdö (line 3), and then, ôMere anarchy is loosed upon the worldö (line 4) in the form of ecological disasters and political upheavals. While Yeats may have been alluding to a specific event, such as the Russian Revolution of just a few years earlier, his use of poetic imagery allows the modern reader to draw parallels to all kinds of anarchy in which ôthe ceremony of innocence is drownedö (line 6).

He concludes his allusion to the whirlwind of great events by detailing the effect of this chaos on the human population: ôThe best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensityö (lines 7-8). His description paints a vivid picture of the confusion that anarchy unleashes in human intelligence, making rational thought complicated and encouraging emotional outbursts and displays of blind faith. In the current situation, those who express misgivings about a coming war are met with the ôpassionate intensityö of those who believe that reasoned opposition is tantamount to blindness and treason.

In the second of the poemÆs two verses, Yeats uses the symbolism of the Sphinx to paint a powerful caution about what will shortly ...

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Yeats' Poem "The Second Coming". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:27, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700546.html