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Summary and Analysis of the Poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats
Updated on March 5, 2019
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Andrew Spacey more
Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print.
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William Butler Yeats 1920
William Butler Yeats 1920 | Source
Summary of The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats wrote his visionary poem, The Second Coming, in January 1919 when he was 44 years old. Already established as a poet, theatre director, politician and esoteric philosopher, this poem further enhanced his reputation as a leading cultural figure of the time.
In a 1936 letter to a friend, Yeats said that the poem was 'written some 16 or 17 years ago and foretold what is happening', that is, Yeats poetically predicted the rise of a rough beast that manifested as chaos and upheaval in the form of Nazism and Fascism, bringing Europe to its knees.
Yeats had lived through tough times - World War 1 had seen unprecedented slaughter; several Irish Nationalists had been executed in the struggle for freedom; the Russian revolution had caused upheaval - and The Second Coming seemed to tap into the zeitgeist.
'My horror at the cruelty of governments grows greater' he told a friend. His poem seems to suggest that world affairs and spirituality undergo transformation from time to time. Humankind has to experience darkness before the light can stream in again through the cracks.
Things might fall apart, systems collapse and spiritual refreshment can only be achieved through the second coming: a Christian concept involving the return of Jesus Christ on Earth.
Except that this second coming would be no holy birth of an infant Christ in a lowly manger, no Saviour.
Something far sinister is in prospect; an antithetical creature, sphinx-like in nature, a rough beast, slouching its way, about to be born en route to a symbolic Bethlehem.
This could manifest as war, huge social and political change, climate change and environmental disaster.
The Second Coming is a disturbing poem with memorable lines that have been used by modern writers, rock bands and others as titles for their work. It's a highly visual two stanza creation, ending in a long, deep question.
The Second Coming
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?