Name________________
Things Fall Apart
Objective: Understanding the connection between various literary works
Chinua Achebe takes the title of his novel Things Fall Apart from “The Second Coming,” a poem by William Butler Yeats.
Viewing the destruction and catastrophe of World War I, Yeats feared a rise in communism and
future global tragedy. He wrote his poem as a glimpse into the world that could arise from the results of the war.
Instructions: Read the poem and underline examples of imagery. In the Analysis box, write three complete sentences using
words from the word bank to describe the mood.
Underline Images in the Poem
Mood
“The Second Coming”
Turning and turning in the widening gyre1
The falcon cannot hear the falconer2;
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 Coming3 is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi4
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man5,
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 cradle6,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born7?
Word Bank
Light-hearted
Enlightened
Warm
Peaceful
Trustful
Idyllic
Dignified
Tense
Insidious
Cold
Nightmarish
Foreboding
Desolate
Barren
Playful
Optimistic
Hopeful
Welcoming
Awkward
Sympathetic
Empowered
Gloomy
Pessimistic
Hopeless
Hostile
Painful
Merciless
Heartbroken
Tender
Liberating
Nostalgic
Harmonious
Confident
Joyous
Inclusive
Violent
Confining
Haunting
Suspenseful
Threatening
Terrifying
Lonely
Things Fall Apart Prediction:
Look back to the words you used to describe the mood of this poem. List 3 different predictions you think might
take place in Achebe’s novel.
1)
Things
Fall
Apart
2)
Why do you think the title of the book has to do with the poem?
3)