The Second Coming

In A Nutshell "The Second Coming" is easily one of the most famous and frequently quoted poems in all of Western literature. Several famous prose writers have used lines from W.B. Yeatss poems as titles to their books, and "The Second Coming" is no exception. For example, Chinua Achebe, an African writer, used part of the third line as the title of his novel, Things Fall Apart, and Woody Allen recently wrote a book called Mere Anarchy. Yeatss poem was first published in 1920, a year after the end of World War I, "the Great War," in which millions of European died. While many people at the time just wanted to get on with their lives, Yeats thought that European society had pretty much broken down, and the poem is a terrifying prediction of future violence. Unfortunately, the rise of Hitler and fascism in the 1930s proved him largely correct, and many find the poem disturbingly prophetic in light of the later wars of the twentieth century. However, we shouldnt somehow think that Yeats was a depressive based on this single work, his bleakest. Many of his other poems engage with more uplifting subjects, like love and Irish folklore. Nor should we think that Yeats was defeatist. After all, he was a very active figure in Irish politics throughout his life, which was in the process of gaining its independence from England. By the time this poem was published, he had already been famous for many years, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

Why Should I Care?

This is one of a handful of poems written in the 20th century that people from all walks of life politicians, bankers, and scientists are not afraid to learn and quote by heart. For one thing, you cant accuse W.B. Yeats of being elusive or indecisive: a complaint about a lot of modern poetry. This one hits like a ton of bricks. The language is blunt and direct, but the rhythm is complicated and musical. When you repeat lines like, "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed," its like an entire period of history has been summed up in only a few words. Indeed, people still quote from Yeats during every war. The recent war in Iraq is no exception: for example, in 2006 a Congressman Jim McDermott gave a speech titled "The Center Cannot Hold." Another reason the poem has been so popular is that its mysterious symbolism can be interpreted in a meaningful way by anyone, regardless or their social or political views. Some people think that Yeats is trying to steer society back to its traditional values; others say that he thinks only a revolution will lead to a new order. Above all, "The Second Coming" amounts a frightening document of how poets often have a specific perspective a "vision" of the way things are that most of the rest of us are unable to see.

The Second Coming Summary

The poem begins with the image of a falcon flying out of earshot from its human master. In medieval times, people would use falcons or hawks to track down animals at ground level. In this image,

however, the falcon has gotten itself lost by flying too far away, which we can read as a reference to the collapse of traditional social arrangements in Europe at the time Yeats was writing. In the fourth line, the poem abruptly shifts into a description of "anarchy" and an orgy of violence in which "the ceremony of innocence is drowned." The speaker laments that only bad people seem to have any enthusiasm nowadays. At line 9, the second stanza of the poem begins by setting up a new vision. The speaker takes the violence which has engulfed society as a sign that "the Second Coming is at hand." He imagines a sphinx in the desert, and we are meant to think that this mythical animal, rather than Christ, is what is coming to fulfill the prophecy from the Biblical Book of Revelation. At line 18, the vision ends as "darkness drops again," but the speaker remains troubled. Finally, at the end of the poem, the speaker asks a rhetorical question which really amounts to a prophecy that the beast is on its way to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, to be born into the world.

Stanza I Summary
Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-by-line.

Lines 1-2
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

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. In actual falconry, the bird is not supposed to keep flying in circles forever; it is eventually supposed to come back and land on the falconers glove. (Interesting fact: falconers wear heavy gloves to keep the birds from scratching them with their claws.)

Line 3
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

The "notion" that "things fall apart" could still apply to the falcon, but its also vague enough to serve as a transition to the images of more general chaos that follow. The second part of the line, a declaration that "the centre cannot hold," is full of political implications (like the collapse of centralized order into radicalism). This is the most famous line of the poem: the poems "thesis," in a nutshell.

Lines 4-6
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

These three lines describe a situation of violence and terror through phrases like "anarchy," "blood-dimmed tide," and "innocence [. . .] drowned." (By the way, "mere" doesnt mean "only" in this context; it means "total" or "pure.") Overall, pretty scary stuff. Also, with words like "tide," "loosed," and "drowned," the poem gives the sensation of water rushing around us. Its like Noahs flood all over again, except theres no orderly line of animals headed two-by-two into a boat. Whats Yeats referring to here? Is this a future prophecy, the poets dream, or maybe a metaphor for Europe at war? Theres really no way to be sure Yeats doesnt seem to want us to know too much.

Lines 7-8
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Who are "the best" and "the worst"? One way of deciphering them is that Yeats is talking about "the good" and "the bad." But he doesnt use those words in the poem, and these lines are a clue as to why not. For one thing, if "the best lack all conviction," can they really be that good? Believing in something enough to act on it is kind of what being good is all about. On the other hand, "the worst" have all the "intensity" on their side, which is good for them, but definitely not for everyone else. Think about that time you dropped your lunch in the cafeteria and all the people you hate laughed really hard, and all your friends were too embarrassed to do anything about it. According to Yeats, Europe after the war is kind of like that. Things are so messed up that you cant tell the good and the bad apart.

Stanza II Summary
Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-by-line.

Lines 9-10
Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

Notice how these two lines are almost exactly the same. This is where the speaker tells us what he thinks is going on, but the repetition means that hes maybe not so sure and is slowly trying to figure things out. Its a revelation, he says, which is when the true meaning of something is revealed.

Not only that, but its a revelation according to the most reputable source for these kinds of things: the Book of Revelation. Apparently, all this violence and moral confusion means "the Second Coming is at hand." According to the Bible, that means Christ is going come back and set everything straight, right? Well see. For now, the poem is about to take another turn.

Lines 11-13
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

So maybe were not saved. The words "Second Coming" seem to have made the speaker think of something else, so that he repeats the phrase as an exclamation. Its like, "Eureka!" It makes him think of a "vast image out of Spiritus Mundi." To know what this means, you have to know that Yeats was very interested in the occult and believed that people have a supernatural connection to one another. Its in the same ballpark as telepathy or a psychic connection, but not quite as kooky as those other things. Its more like were all connected to a big database of communal memories going back all the way through human history, which we can get in contact with when were feeling truly inspired. Literally, Spiritus Mundi means "spirit of the world." The speaker, through his sudden, revelatory connection to the world, is given access to a vision that takes him "somewhere in the sands of the desert."

Line 14
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

Here, he is describing the sphinx, a mythical beast "with lion body and the head of a man." You might have seen the picture of the ancient sphinx in Egypt: its pretty famous. But Yeats isnt talking about that sphinx, per se. Hes talking about the original, archetypal symbol of the sphinx that first inspired the Egyptians to build that big thing in the desert, and which is now inspiring him.

Lines 15-17
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

In these lines he describes the sphinxs expression and what it is doing. By calling its gaze "pitiless," he doesnt mean "evil" or "mean-spirited." In fact, the sphinx really seems to have an inhuman expression that is as indifferent as nature itself. It is "blank," statuesque, and incapable of having empathy with other humans.

This might not tell us much, but now we know that the sphinx doesnt jibe at all with the way most people think of Christ. In other words, this "Second Coming" doesnt seem to have at lot in common with the descent of Christ from Heaven as described in the Book of Revelation. Nor does it seem to be in any big hurry to get here, as it moves "its slow thighs." But, strangely, this slowness only seems to add to the suspense and terror, like Michael Myers chasing Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie Halloween. Even the birds are ticked-off, or "indignant," but its not clear why. Their circling is similar to the gyres of the falcon from the beginning of the poem, but from what we know about desert birds, like vultures, when they fly in circles its often because they think something will die soon.

Lines 18-20
The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

The vision from Spiritus Mundi ends as "darkness drops again," like a stage curtain, but it has left the speaker with a strong prophetic impression. He knows something that he didnt before, namely, that this strange sphinx is a symbol that will bear on the future. Thinking outside the poem, its safe to say that he is talking about Europes future, and perhaps the worlds in general. What exactly does the speaker claim to "know"? "Twenty centuries" refers to roughly the amount of time that has passed since the "first coming" of Christ. But we have already seen that the Second Coming is not going to be anything like the first. Although 2,000 years seems like a long time to us, Yeats compares it to a single night of an infants 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. Its interesting that the infant doesn't wake up because of the rocking. It instead begins to have nightmares, much like the recent nightmares afflicting European society, whose long history amounts to no more than the first stages of childhood. Its the terrible twos of an entire continent.

Lines 21-22
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The object of Yeatss vision, which was formerly symbolized as a pitiless sphinx, is now described as a "rough beast" on its way to Bethlehem the birthplace of Christ "to be born." The "slouching" of this beast is animalistic and similar to the slow gait of the sphinx in the desert. It sounds more than a little menacing. Yeats is using the birth at Bethlehem as a metaphor of the passage of this malevolent beast from the spirit world Spiritus Mundi to the real, everyday world, where its effects will be visible to everyone.

By phrasing these lines as a question, Yeats tantalizes us with all the possibilities of what he might be describing. In the time since Yeats wrote the poem, the beast has been interpreted as a prediction of everything bad that the twentieth century has wrought, particularly the horrors of World War II: Hitler, fascism, and the atomic bomb. It is the "nightmare" from which society would not be able to awake. Of course, Yeats would not have known about these specific things. However, he did seem to have a sense that things were still getting worse while most people around him thought things were getting better. Some readers have thought that the birth at the end was an ironic vision of the Antichrist, an embodiment of evil as powerful as Christ was an embodiment of goodness. Others believe that the beast, even though it is described as "rough," might not be evil, but merely a manifestation of the kind of harsh justice that society as a whole deserves. In other words, things have become so violent and decadent that Gods only solution is to deploy his all-purpose cleanser.

The Gyre
Symbol Analysis

Line 1: The "gyre" is an important recurring symbol in Yeatss poetry. Technically, it stands from the alternation between two historical cycles: one characterized by order and growth, the other by chaos and decay. Its comparable to the Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang. Yeats wrote a poem called "The Gyres" in his collection The Tower, but even there its still pretty confusing. Fortunately, all that philosophical background isnt essential to the poem.

Medieval
Symbol Analysis

Lines 1-2: Falconing was an activity that is associated with medieval times. People with enough wealth that is, feudal landowners often built aviaries where they kept birds to use for hunting. The most common were falcons and hawks. As such, this activity is associated with violence, but not the kind of uncontrolled, chaotic violence that characterized World War I. Falconing was a noble activity in which the bird was tightly controlled by its master. Obviously, that is not the case here. The reference to falconing should also be read as a symbol of the virtues of the Middle Ages: order, tradition, strong religious faith, unified government, and "civilized" warfare. Line 19: The word "stony" has many connotations here, but one of them might refer to the Middle Ages again. After all, when you think of a medieval structure like a Gothic cathedral or a castle, you probably think of a big, strong, stone building. "Stony" here suggests something that endures and lasts a long time. However, we also call a person "stone-like" when they are incapable of feeling or reacting. In addition, Yeats is using the image of an infants "sleep" as a metaphor for the roughly 2,000 years between the First and Second Comings. Its easy to forget that the Middle Ages lasted around 800-1000 years, from around the 5th to the 15th centuries in Europe. Therefore, it was the longest period of the last "twenty centuries," and Yeats might be using it as representative of the period as a whole.

Biblical
Symbol Analysis

Title: "The Second Coming" is an allusion to the reappearance of Christ as prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Lines 4-6: These lines contain two more allusions to the Bible. First, the word "anarchy" calls to mind the reign of Satan on Earth before Christ comes back. However, more specifically, it also brings to mind the Biblical flood that sent Noah packing the wife, kids, and a few pets into the ark. Interestingly, the poem spans the entire length of the Bible in these lines, from Genesis (the flood) to Revelation. Yeatss image is noticeably more violent than the Bible ("blood-dimmed tide," "drowned"). Its like the big flood viewed from the perspective of those who didnt make it into the ark. Another notable thing about these lines is the work being done by the word "loosed," which translates roughly to "unleashed" or "let free." Its a word that can be applied to a liquid like water, but also has the implication of a more animalistic force. In this way, it prefaces the symbolic unleashing of the "rough beast" later in the poem. Lines 13-14: The description of the sphinx in the desert recalls several themes from the Bible. First, as we know, the sphinx is that big stone animal that tourists like to snap pictures of in Egypt. In the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, Egypt is where the Jewish people where held in bondage until they were freed by Charleton Heston, that is, Moses. Also, these lines bring to mind the story of Christs temptation by Satan in the desert. So, in a sense, the desert is the devils home. Finally, the sphinx itself, as a mash-up of two different animals (man and lion), can be compared with similarly confused species in the Book of Revelation, such as locusts with scorpion tails (ouch!). Line 19: "Stony sleep," "nightmare," and "rocking cradle" are part of an extended metaphor comparing the "twenty centuries" between Christ and the Second Coming as only one night of an infants sleep. The metaphor of sleep suggests either the relative peacefulness or the obliviousness (probably both) which characterized the "twenty centuries" between the First and Second Comings, assuming that the latter is just around the corner. Line 22: Compared to the weird images inspired by the Book of Revelation, this ones easy. Christ was born in Bethlehem, so that city is a symbol of the entrance of absolute and messianic forces in the world. In the case of Christ, absolute Good. In the case of the "rough beast," well, lets just say nobodys going to be greeting this thing with frankincense and myrrh.

Spiritus Mundi
Symbol Analysis

Lines 12-17: These lines are an example of symbolism, and they contain several symbols that can really be disconnected from another. In general, they represent a confused "veiled" vision of the "rough beast" described later in the poem. They are said to originate in Spiritus Mundi, a "spirit world" of images and symbols that Yeats believed to have been traditionally available to the most perceptive people (like poets) throughout history. Although lots of smart-sounding people like to say that symbols always have to "mean" something specific, Yeats thought that the best symbols couldnt ever be fully explained in words. They are "expressive" in a way that passes beyond ordinary speech.

Whats Up With the Title?

The title refers to the Second Coming of Christ, as predicted in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible. This book, also known as the Apocalypse, is one of the strangest, most violent parts of the Bible. Its also inspired more than a few "end of the world" panic movements throughout history (remember Y2K?). It depicts the return of Christ to conquer Satan and the forces of evil, before presiding over a thousand-year reign of peace on Earth. Yeats loved to use wild

symbols in his poems, so its no wonder that he was attracted to the Book of Revelation, which is chock full of em. Just to give a few examples, youve got the Four Horsemen, seven Plagues, a doorway to Heaven, and an evil beast called the Whore of Babylon. However, Yeats had other motives for referencing the Book of Revelation. For one thing, when he wrote the poem, World War I had just ended in Europe, and a lot of people were starting to take the idea of a "war to end all wars" more seriously. They were also worried about how to tell good and evil apart. Amid this pessimistic atmosphere, Yeats adds a sinister twist to the idea of the Second Coming in his poem, suggesting that the end of history might not be heralded by the return of Christ at all, but by the coming of the Antichrist a symbol of violence and chaos in the world.

The Second Coming Theme of Good vs. Evil

Are good people still good if they dont act in the face of chaos? Is there something awe-inspiring about people who do bad things, but who "are full of passionate intensity"? The question of how to tell good and evil apart and whether they can be separated at all is essential to the text of "The Second Coming." Yeatss generation had just witnessed the worst war in modern history (World War I) one in which there were no "good guys," because every nation was sending its men to live for months in horrible trenches, often fighting over a few feet of land. The implication throughout the poem is that society has strayed too far from its values to act responsibly. The image at the beginning of the poem depicts a situation in which the falcon, a symbol of nobility and tradition, is "deaf" to the instructions of its master. "Innocence" is described as only a "ceremony," something that is put on for show, but perhaps not truly meant. "The best" people are said to "lack all conviction," which would seem to be a paradox. And the sphinx in the desert seems to embody a force that is neither good nor evil, but simply indifferent. By the end of the poem, the speakers question about what kind of "beast" is about to be born is merely the last sign of how far away society is from clear categories of "good" and "evil," compared to those found in the Bible.