Yeats' Poem "The Second Coming"

This paper is an analysis of William Butler Yeats' prophetic poem, "The Second Coming." 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, Yeats' 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 humankind's 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, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" (line 3), and then, "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" (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 "the ceremony of innocence is drowned" (line 6).

He concludes his allusion to the whirlwind of great events by detailing the effect of this chaos on the human population: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity" (lines 7-8). His description paints a vivid picture of the confusion that anarchy unleashes in human in

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