The Second Coming
William butler yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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 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?
Introduction :
W.B.Yeats was born on 13th June, 1865 in Dublin, now capital of Ireland.From his childhood he experienced the atmosphere of both the urban and rural areas as he lived with his grandparents and uncle at Sligo ( a seaside area ), a typical Irish rural world and with his father in London, the center of colonial Britain. Yeats may be considered as the greatest Irish writer - a poet, a dramatist, folklorist, anthropologist and theatre-manager. Though he was a versatile writer, he is remembered mostly for his celebrated poems in numerous volume/numbers.This poem "The Second Coming" is a famous poem in both historical and religious point of view.
Summary: A falcon is flying in a circular/spiral form in the sky and it flies in such a height and extent that it can not hear the commands of its master (falconer) and goes beyond the control. Things of this world have lost the integrity and the center or the controlling point can not maintain the balance. Only anarchy goes rampant everywhere on this earth resulting blood-tide through cruelty and devastation. The activities of the innocent people get no recognition, naturally drowned. The best people of the world lack all their conviction for the present chaotic situation and the worst ones are full of passion and enthusiasm for bringing about the heinous effects.
The poet hopes that some revelation is impending, and at the very next moment he is sure of the second coming of God. The poet visualizes that a vast image is coming out of the 'spirit of the world' (Spiritus Mundi). It troubles the sight of the poet. A vast image with lion body and the head of a man (a sphinx)
is revealed somewhere in the sands of the desert. Its gaze is wide (blank) and pitiless like the scorching sun. The sphinx is moving slowly(slow thigh) . All the desert birds of that area become indignant and flying above this rough beast, their shadows bearing the proof of it.Darkness covers the whole atmosphere. The poet thinks that the twenty centuries of stony sleep of the sphinx is disturbed in a nightmarish situation for the rocking of the cradle on which the beast had been in deep sleep. The question of the poet is whether this brutish rough creature is slowly moving towards Bethlehem with an intention to be born for the second time at the appropriate hour.
