'The Second Coming' (1920) is a poem written by William Butler Yeats that uses Christian imagery, metaphor and allegory to describe the atmosphere of Europe after the first world war. 'The Second Coming' is a famous modernist poem and has been cited in major works such as The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmelden'The Second Coming' (1920) is a poem written by William Butler Yeats that uses Christian imagery, metaphor and allegory to describe the atmosphere of Europe after the first world war. 'The Second Coming' is a famous modernist poem and has been cited in major works such as The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
An allegory is when a symbolic narrative is created that has a secondary meaning. One of the most famous allegories is 'The Tortoise and the Hare'- a story with a moral imperative secondary to its literal meaning.
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Written By | William Butler Yeats |
Form / Style | Two stanzas, composed of 8 and 14 lines respectively |
Meter | A very loose iambic pentameter that is so inconsistent it is closer to free verse |
Rhyme Scheme | Aside from two rhyming couplets at the beginning, no rhyme scheme |
Poetic Devices | Allegory, alliteration, allusion, assonance, hyperbole, metaphor, symbolism |
Notable Imagery | The falcon in the gyre, the desert sphinx-like creature, the rocking cradle |
Key Themes | Anarchy, apocalypse, Christianity, prophesy, violence |
Meaning | While 'The Second Coming' is notoriously hard to pin down, it describes the state of Europe after WWI. The poem emphasizes that humanity itself might be on the brink of an apocalyptic future, circling around conflict and violence. |
When William Butler Yeats wrote the poem 'The Second Coming' in 1919, the first world war had just ended. World War I, dubbed "The War to End All Wars," was the most horrific conflict the world had ever seen on such a global scale, and another war was brewing as Yeats wrote the poem.
At this same time, Yeats' young wife Georgie Hyde-Lees was pregnant with their daughter and came down with the Spanish Influenza. As a result of this, the birth was difficult, and Yeats was worried they wouldn't make it. William Butler Yeats' poetry had always been concerned with the grandiose and the Occult, and the poem 'The Second Coming' is no exception.
Yeats and Hyde-Lees often participated in a ritual writing practice called automatic writing, meaning Yeats and Hyde-Lees believed spirits passed over to the human world and used their bodies as conduits for art. Yeats also believed that history moved in 2,000-year cycles. As the Year of Christ was coming to an end at this time, he believed another historic cycle was set to repeat itself, thus leading the creation of 'The Second Coming' in all of its apocalyptic glory.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
When analyzing poetry, it is good to first have an objective grasp on the events and images that are present within the text.
When analyzing a poem, try to place some themes within the historical context of when the poem was created. What themes can you point to in 'The Second Coming' that are reminiscent of the atmosphere after WWI?
'The Second Coming' is a notoriously difficult poem to interpret, but there are a few themes that Yeats constantly concerned himself with. Of the many subjects that the poem 'The Second Coming' is concerned with, violence, Christianity, and cyclicality are three of the most notable.
The theme of violence in 'The Second Coming' is obvious throughout the work. As a result of the context in which the poem was written, this is to be expected. The aftermath of WWI was horrible for the global population, but Yeats took it especially personally as someone who opposed violence to begin with. He predicted that the violence of the war would not end there, and he was right of course, as WWII began 20 years after the poem was written. We can see the theme of violence in the vicious imagery he uses.
The first image of the poem is a falcon being lost from its handler as the gyre (the end of a 2,000-year cycle) and sphinx-like creature (violence of bloodshed across Europe) unleash anarchy across the earth. The loss of the falcon from its handler can represent the loss of humanity's connection with the natural world or the loss of humanity's ability to control the violent progression of the world. Both failures of the species in this example lead to the moral decay depicted in lines 7-8. We then see a bloody tide that sweeps the planet, drowning innocence.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;"
This bloody tide that is loosed upon the world represents the bloodshed of WWI in Europe and the seemingly inescapable moral failing of humankind to prevent this from occurring. The "blood-dimmed" tide drowns the "ceremony of innocence", meaning that the bloody sins of the world are too numerous for humanity to claim its innocence still.
The "rough beast" that slinks towards Bethlehem is not Jesus, but the representation of humanity's moral corruptness and violence overtaking a peaceful place such as Bethlehem or, in this case, Europe. This is an indicator of how the speaker feels about human nature.
As we see with the falcon, the loss of humanity's control on its connection to nature and the unstoppable force of history repeating itself (the gyre) indicate a need for peace and wisdom that we do not receive, leading the speaker to recite images from Revelations in the Bible (beasts coming to consume the earth, the Second Coming, and the bloody tide itself).
William Butler Yeats' poetry was firmly interested in the occult. Yeats and his young wife Georgie Hyde-Lees both engaged in spiritual rituals and beliefs that led them to experience what they described as communing with spirits and visions. As a poem, 'The Second Coming' is concerned with the cyclical nature of things, as Yeats believed that history moved in 2,000-year cycles that repeated themselves. 'The Second Coming' states in lines 18-20:
This passage is explicitly concerned with the cyclical nature of the world, as it states: the darkness comes, but now I (the speaker) know that 2,000 years of the creature "sleeping" (or being buried) awoke in a nightmare as a result of the ending cycle. In this example, the rocking cradle (a haunting image) is reminiscent of the birth of Christ 2,000 years previous. The creature being woken up represents the ending of the era of Christ and European life as it was known and indicates the dawn of a new era, opening with a violent creature with a more-than-human capacity for aggression.
'The Second Coming' contains an abundance of Christian allusions. A few allusions (though not an exhaustive list) to Revelations are indicated below:
Despite Yeats himself renouncing organised religions such as Christianity, his use of Christian imagery meant his audiences in English-speaking Europe would be well aware of the Christian language used.
William Butler Yeats is known for being a powerful symbolist poet. The symbols in 'The Second Coming' are plentiful. Here, we will focus on three: the gyre, the tide, and the creature.
'The Second Coming' opens with the image of a gyre (or vortex). This gyre is representative of a circular pattern or path. In this instance, the gyre is used to indicate the cyclical nature of history and time- events that repeat themselves (see cyclicality, above). The gyre can also represent the loss of control or consistency that the speaker feels as a result of the recent WWI. The gyre is a powerful symbol, because it demonstrates the loss of control the falconer experiences in reference to the falcon. The cyclical vortex sweeps the falcon up and away from its handler, demonstrating the lack of agency the bird or falconer have over the progression of events as they continue. This is indicative of the loss of control that humanity felt as WWI swept across Europe.
The tide is another powerful symbol in 'The Second Coming' and is perhaps an allusion to the Biblical Noah's Flood. The tide that is loosed upon the world is "blood-dimmed", and drowns innocence, leaving room for evil to flourish. The tide sweeping over the planet is a powerful force that is inescapable, such as the first world war was inescapable, even for those who opposed it. As there was also strife and oppression throughout Ireland in the 1910s, where Yeats witnessed an abundance of violence and conflict (such as the Easter Rising) that could have contributed to the air of apocalypse, particularly for the people of Ireland, during this time.
As this new 2,000-year cycle begins, the unstoppable evil creates more room for violence and conflict – perhaps referencing Yeats' belief that more war was on the way. Which, of course, was correct.
The sphinx is a symbol traditionally used in literature to represent untapped knowledge or mystery. It is also a humanoid creature, one that contains an otherworldly wisdom, while being able to relate to humanity in an unsettling way. In 'The Second Coming' the sphinx-like creature is a behemoth of a beast, slinking towards Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Christ-child and represents the fact that it is moving to destroy the history and peaceful practices of Christianity by beginning its corruption at the center (Bethlehem). The sphinx is also a pagan image in 'The Second Coming', a vision the speaker has of the end of Christian beliefs. In the poem, Christianity is a symbol of hope and peace, but in 'The Second Coming', the end is nigh, and all the innocent people will be drowned in the "blood-dimmed tide" and this new pagan image of destruction and terror will take their place.
While 'The Second Coming' has many meanings and interpretations, the most obvious and prevalent is that the speaker of the poem believes more violence is on the way as a result of the ending of a 2,000-year historical cycle. The poem contains tones of dread, violence, fear, and prophecy as it predicts the end of mundane life as was known in the early 20th century.
William Butler Yeats wrote the poem in the aftermath of WWI, but it paints a picture of a futuristic apocalyptic world in which all hope and innocence are wiped away and evil and violence flourish under the hand of a pagan idol. 'The Second Coming' is, at its heart, a vision of a world where the mass fear and death of WWI continues into the future, made more unsettling by the events that took place in WWII, two decades later.
Yeats wrote 'The Second Coming' as he was grappling with a post-war Europe. He believed that the violence seen in WWI would continue, and, ultimately, was correct, as WWII began not even two decades later.
The phrase 'The Second Coming' is an allusion to the Second Coming of Christ as mentioned in the Christian Bible.
William Butler Yeats alludes to a lot of mythologies and belief structures in 'The Second Coming', some of which include: Greek mythology (the sphinx), WWI, and Christianity.
'The Second Coming' is about an apocalyptic world in Europe post World War One. The speaker of 'The Second Coming' believes that a 2,000-year cycle of peaceful rule has ended, and a future of violence is at hand.
Yeats wrote 'The Second Coming' in the aftermath of WWI and it was published in 1920.
What is 'The Second Coming' about?
'The Second Coming' is about an apocalyptic world in Europe post World War One. The speaker of 'The Second Coming' believes that a 2,000-year cycle of peaceful rule has ended, and a future of violence is at hand.
When did Yeats write 'The Second Coming'?
Yeats wrote 'The Second Coming' in the aftermath of WWI and it was published in 1920.
Why did Yeats write 'The Second Coming'?
Yeats wrote 'The Second Coming' as he was grappling with a post-war Europe. He believed that the violence seen in WWI would continue, and, ultimately, was correct, as WWII began not even two decades later.
What are some key themes in 'The Second Coming'?
A few key themes in 'The Second Coming' include: Anarchy, apocalypse, Christianity, prophesy, violence
What are some key symbols in 'The Second Coming'?
Some key symbols in 'The Second Coming' include the gyre, the tide, and the sphinx.
What does the gyre represent in 'The Second Coming'?
The gyre represents the cyclical nature of things in 'The Second Coming', namely the end of a 2,000-year cycle, the next beginning with WWI.
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