The Second Coming
By William Butler Yeats
Jenna Bruesehoff & Rhiannon Davis
Title: First look
The Second Coming= The Second Coming of
Christ.
When we hear "The Second Coming" it
immediately brings up a very Christian
connotation. 2000 years after his birth, Christ
is supposed to have returned to bring peace
and prosperity to his people.
Background
-Written in 1919 after World War I,
making it part of the Modernist
period.
-Uses Christian imagery to describe the
atmosphere of post-war Europe.
-Yeat's book, A Vision, describes a
universal system of cyclical birth,
based around a turning gyre.
Gyre= Spiral, Vortex
-Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, and
was fascinated by mysticism and
spiritualism.
So who's speaking?
-The speaker in this poem is someone
prophetic, someone who knows
more than the rest of the world and
is able to see things that others
cannot see. The speaker is very
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,
Gyre: A spiral; a vortex.
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?
Paraphrase
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,
Spinning in the
growing vortex
The falcon is too far
from the falconer
The world is in chaos,
the center breaks
apart
The world is in a
lawless state
Paraphrase (cont.)
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
A wave of blood
crashes down,
everywhere
The innocent people
are drowned
The good are weak,
while the bad
Are passionate and
intense
Paraphrase (cont.)
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 of
Spiritus Mundi
Surely it's time for
some divine truth;
Surely it's time for the
Second Coming.
Hardly had I spoken
those words
When a vision of the
World Spirit
Troubled me:
Paraphrase (cont.)
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
In the desert,
The shape of a
sphinx,
Eyes blank and cruel
like the sun,
Is standing up, while
all around it
Spin angry desert
birds
Paraphrase (cont.)
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?
The vision stops, but now I
know
That 2000 years of sleep
Were full of nightmares
created by a rocking
cradle,
And what terrible beast, it's
time finally arrived,
Walks towards Bethlehem
to be born?
Connotations:
Blank Verse:
-Has a consistent meter but no rhyme scheme
Iambic Pentameter:
-Roughly iambic pentameter; most lines have
ten syllables. Starts off stressed.
Sonnets:
-Second stanza has fourteen lines; first stanza
(8 lines) can be thought of as a fragment of a
sonnet
Tone
Shift
The tone of the poem
is pessimistic. The
author sees the
worst side of things
and has no hope for
the future.
Uses words like:
Anarchy
Blood-dimmed tide
pitiless eyes
Shift from the first
stanza to the
second stanza, the
speaker seems to
lose confidence.
Title Revisited:
While we first thought The Second Coming
would be about Jesus, we now know that
while this prediction definitely has biblical
ties, Yeats is talking about a new godly being
that will awaken amidst the chaotic post-war
climate of the times.
Themes:
When the world has
disintegrated into
chaos, it's at the
beginning of a new
age.
This is part of a theory
developed in Yeat's
book, A Vision,
where the human
history is based on
2000 year cycles.
End:
Chaos,irrationality.
Themes
Good and evil are
difficult to tell apart.
Can be seen in the
line "The best lack
all conviction, while
the worst are full of
passionate
intensity".
This line makes it
seem like yeats
reveres the worst
people simply
because they are
passionate in what
they believe in.
QUIZ TIME
Q1: This poem is an example of a ____ work.
A. Victorian
B. Modernist
C.Romanticist
D.Renaissance
Explain.
Modernism (1900- present)
The prosperity of the Victorian era has now
disintegrated into chaos, just like it is
described in Yeat's poem. Another obvious
clue is the time this poem was written in,
1919.
QUIZ TIME
Q2: The metre in which this poem is written
is....
A. Dactylic Hexameter
B. Iambic Monometer
C. Iambic Trimeter
D. Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
The BEST lack ALL conVICtion, WHILE the WORST
Are FULL of PASSionATE inTENsiTY.
Five stressed, five unstressed syllables per
line.
Bibliography
"The Second Coming: Rhyme, Form & Meter." Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.shmoop.com/second-coming/rhyme-form-meter.html>.
A. A website with information on the connotation of the poem, such as the meter. Also
has a summary of the poem and it's meaning.
B. Source is up to date and contains valid information on the poem.
C.Pulled information on the rhyme scheme and Meter of the poem.
"The Second Coming." - Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15527>.
A. Website with information on poets and their poems.
B. Non-profit website with valid information on the meaning of the poem.
C. Pulled information on why the poem was written.