SUBJECT: The title of this poem refers to the Second
Coming of Jesus as described in The Book of
Revelations; however, rather then the messiah
returning, the speaker sees something more
dangerous and apocalyptic arriving.
KEY IDEAS: Yeats wrote this poem
post-WWI; and it details his fears that
the death and destruction of the Great
War is to continue as evidenced in the
Irish Civil War. He is offering a warning
using the language of apocalypse from
the Bible, while also expressing his
worries and concerns for the future of
his world.
IMAGERY & SYMBOLISM:
“gyre” – whirling, vortex, spiral (OED)
In Yeats’s writings, the gyre is a symbol of two
alternating historical cycles. The first of order
and growth and the second of chaos and decay.
It is similar to the philosophy represented in the
Chinese Yin Yang symbol .
“THE SECOND COMING” –
W.B YEATS
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
IMAGERY & SYMBOLISM:
Falconing was a popular past
time during the Middle Ages
in which a falconer would use
a trained falcon to hunt.
Yeats use of this image
implies that the falconer has
lost control of his bird.
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
LANGUAGE/
IMAGERY: The words
are ritualistic, the
phrasing short and
deliberate. (These are
some of the most
famous lines in poetry).
It continues the image
of a vortex spinning out
of control (think of the
destruction caused by
a twister or cyclone.)
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.
STRUCTURE: Yeats employs a regular
metre, with short phrases and regular
pauses mid-line (caesura) for emphasis.
The first verse employs a series of
metaphoric images to evaluate the state
of the world as Yeats’s sees it. It acts like
a list of evidence.
Page 1 of 3
IMAGERY/ LANGUAGE:
Again Yeats’s chooses
apocalyptic imagery to
describe the death and
destruction wrought by the
Great War.
LANGUAGE/
REPETITION:
“loosed” – ‘unleashed’
or ‘let free’(OED).
Implies that something
violent and unwanted
has been let free into
the world.
IMAGERY/
SYMBOLISM:
This is a description of a
sphinx (half-man and
half-lion). The ancient
Egyptians built a statue
of a sphinx near the
pyramids. It is also a
biblical symbol that
functions in three ways.
Firstly, it reminds the
reader of the bondage of
the Israelites in Egypt
during the book of
Exodus. Secondly, in
the Book of Revelations,
creatures of the devil are
mismatched
combinations of real
animals. Thirdly, Jesus
was tempted by Satan in
the desert. Effectively,
Yeats is saying that
devil’s home is in the
desert where he causes
death and destruction as
evidenced in the
description of the
scavenging birds.
REPETITION/ LANGUAGE:
Deliberate repetition and word
choice of “Surely” connotes
uncertainty. It also highlights
the presence of the narrator.
SUBJECT/ KEY IDEAS: The narrator
thinks that Second Coming is near, but
is uncertain as to what expect. Will it
be the return of the Messiah or
something more apocalyptic as
foreshadowed in WWI?
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
IMAGERY &
SYMBOLISM: For
Yeats, “Spiritus Mundi” is
a dream world of visions
that only poets, artists
and prophets have
access too. These
visions can herald the
future.
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
FIRST-PERSON
SPEAKER is now
present.
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
Page 2 of 3
SPEAKER: Firstperson visionary
narrator who
speaks like a
prophet/ sage.
LANGUAGE/IMAGERY:
Yeats’s gives the image
of the Second Coming, a
sinister ‘twist’ by
describing it as a “rough
beast” that “slouches”.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle ,
IMAGERY/
LANGUAGE: Yeat’s
employs the image of a
sleeping infant to
describe the period
between the First and
Second Coming The
choice of the word
“stony” implies a long,
fixed sleep (“twenty
centuries”) where
nightmarish dreams
are the only things to
fear.
And what rough beast , its hour come round at last,
SYMBOLISM: This is a
biblical reference as
Christ was born in
Bethlehem and; hence is
the appropriate place for
the birth of the Second
Coming.
Page 3 of 3
Slouches towards BETHLEHEM to be born?
RHETORICAL QUESTION/ STRUCTURE: Yeats is asking us to agree with
the argument of his first person narrator that an apocalypse could be nigh. The
first stanza is effectively a list of evidence to support this view. The second
stanza is where the prophet/sage like speaker predicts a troubled future.