“The Second Coming” was intended by
Yeats to describe the current historical moment (the poem appeared in 1921) in terms of these gyres
. Yeats believed that the world was on the threshold of an apocalyptic revelation, as history reached the end of the outer gyre (to speak roughly) and began moving along the inner gyre.
What is the main idea of the Second Coming?
Major Themes of “The Second Coming”:
Violence, prophecy, and meaninglessness
are the major themes foregrounded in this poem. Yeats emphasizes that the present world is falling apart, and a new ominous reality is going to emerge.
What is the conflict in the Second Coming?
The poem does show a turning of
humans to darkness and the conflict of corruption
, the poem also shows darkness on a broader scale. Yeats does not reference specific people but he makes a broader generalization about darkness in the world, explaining the nature of the world at the time.
What is the significance of the falconer in the poem The Second Coming discuss?
The falconer in “The Second Coming” is
generally thought to represent Christ
. The Christian historical epoch, or “gyre” as Yeats calls it, is drawing to a close. In its stead will come a new era marred by chaos, bloodshed and disorder.
What is the tone of the poem The Second Coming?
In poetry, tone is
the feeling a writer projects through word choice, imagery and subject
. The foreboding tone of Irishman William Butler Yeats' poem “The Second Coming” — a vision of social upheaval — can make a reader feel moody and worried.
What does Yeats allude to The Second Coming?
What does Yeats allude to in “The Second Coming”?
The Christian notion of an apocalypse that involves the return of a messiah or savior.
What does the Sphinx symbolize in The Second Coming?
As soon as Yeats introduces the idea of a Second Coming as salvation, he uses his most powerful symbol
—
the Sphinx — to offer his prediction of the future of the world and of humanity. … Its power is gone, and the hour of the “rough beast” — the Sphinx, an allusion to pre-Christian religion — has come around again.
How does the repetition of the phrase The Second Coming?
PART A: How does the repetition of the phrase “The Second Coming” in lines 10-11 contribute to the tone of the poem? The repetition
emphasizes the speaker's worry and contributes to the fearful tone.
What kind of poem is The Second Coming?
The Second Coming” is written in
blank verse
, which means that has a consistent meter but no rhyme scheme. With 22 lines divided into two stanzas, it does not appear to follow a particular formal tradition. However, notice that the second stanza has fourteen lines, making it the same length as a sonnet.
What does the rough beast symbolize in The Second Coming?
Of great significance in Yeats' poem is the “rough beast,” apparently
the Anti-Christ, who has not been born yet
. And most problematic is that the rough beast is “slouch[ing] towards Bethlehem to be born.” The question is, how can such an Anti-Christian creature be slouching if it has not yet been born?
What poetic form is The Second Coming based on?
Yeats believed that history is cyclical, and “The Second Coming”—a two-
stanza poem in blank verse
—with its imagery of swirling chaos and terror, prophesies the cataclysmic end of an era.
What is the attitude of The Second Coming?
Attitude. His
tone overall is negative
representing the doom he feels will occur if the sphinx enters the human world. The tone switches to a glimpse of hope in the second stanza because Yates realizes there is a second coming.
What kind of mythological creature is featured in the poem The Second Coming?
His seminal poetic work, The Second Coming, can be read in the light of the ancient Indian myth of Narasimha avatar,
the hum-animal hybrid incarnation of Lord Vishnu
.
What imagery in The Second Coming supports the theme?
Yeats uses
apocalyptic imagery
and an urgent tone to reflect the theme of his own time and of the years to come: the loss of tradition and the insurgance of violence will bring about the end of the world. … The second image reinforces Yeats' troubled depiction of the world's end: an ominous sphynx.
What drowns the ceremony of innocence in The Second Coming?
The ceremony of innocence is drowned. The
anarchy
and blood-dimmed tide Yeats describes allude to the Russian revolution and World War I, both shocking and violent events in the European consciousness. … People can no longer live in innocence, because too much death and violence has occurred.
What does WB Yeats say for his daughter in prayer for my daughter?
W. B. Yeats in his ten-stanza poem, ‘A Prayer for my Daughter' questions how best to raise his daughter. …
He wants to give his daughter a life of beauty and innocence, safety, and security
. He further wants her to be well- mannered and full of humility free from intellectual hatred and being strongly opinionated.
What does rocking cradle mean in the Second Coming?
Although 2,000 years seems like a long time to us, Yeats compares it to a single night of an infant's sleep, which is suddenly “vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle.” The cradle
reinforces the image that something has recently been “born
,” and its motion also serves as a metaphor for social upheaval.
What beast slouches to Bethlehem born?
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
William Butler Yeats
, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature. His work was greatly influenced by the heritage and politics of Ireland.
What do the falcon and the falconer represent in the Second Coming?
The falcon, separated from the falconer, is lost: without reason, without ruler, without larger cause. It is a
symbol for a lost humanity
, at the mercy of uncontrollable forces. The falcon, in short, is all of us, wandering around the earth, trying to find meaning.
What is the best and the worst in the poem The Second Coming?
Yeats is referring to sides in the Irish political conflict, complaining that “the best” won't commit to a full-out rebellion against the English, while
the worst are loud and boisterous
, but ineffective in their actual actions.
What does slouching toward Bethlehem?
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is
a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s
. … The contents of this book are reprinted in Didion's We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (2006).
What does turning and turning in the widening gyre mean?
The falcon is described as “turning” in a “widening gyre” until it can
no
longer “hear the falconer,” its human master. A gyre is a spiral that expands outward as it goes up. Yeats uses the image of gyres frequently in his poems to describe the motion of history toward chaos and instability.
