The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats - Essay Example

 ‘The Second Coming’ by William Butler Yeats Introduction ‘The Second Coming’ by William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) was written in 1919, during the aftermath of World War I, and the poem was published in 1920. This poem has many versions to it and the version I have chosen is the version that was published in the Michael Robartes and the Dancer edition of 1920. It is believed to be ‘one of the hundred most anthologized poems in the English language.’(Harmon, (1998) A few of the lines found in this particular version, do not occur in the subsequent versions. This famous poem is one that is most frequently quoted by other famous prose writers of Western literature. For example, Woody Allen titled his recent book as ‘Mere Anarchy’. (Harmon, (1998) William Butler Yeats, besides being a poet of great repute, played a very active role in Irish politics at the time it was trying to gain its independence from England. As a poet he wrote poems on a wide range of subjects such as Irish folklore, and on many other uplifting themes. Even before his poem ‘The Second Coming’ got published, Yeat’s had become quite famous and even received ‘The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 for his highly inspiring poetry and contribution to literature. The mysterious symbolism that he uses in his poems is very meaningful as it is attractive to people from different walks of life, regardless of their personal political views or social standing. The poem reflects the deterioration of European society following the destruction and death of millions of European people. In fact, Yeat’s poem is viewed as a sort of prediction of the violence to follow. The emergence of Hitler who brought in fascism during the 1930’s and the wars that followed proved the poem to be highly prophetic during the 20th century. Yeat’s vision was to steer society away from destruction and shift it back to its strong traditional values and usher in a new order. The opening line of Stanza 1 starts with the image of a falcon in the distance. The falcon is shown to have flown too far away and hence it has got lost in the sky without a glimmer of hope of its return. In those days, when means of transport was hard to come by, people made use of birds such as falcons and hawks at the ground level to help them track animals. In the poem, the falcon is shown to have flown away very far and gets lost in the sky. The poet uses simple yet stylistic language to draw a correlation between the falcon that has lost itself and cannot find its way back to its master, and the collapse of traditional, cultural and social values in Europe during the time W.B Yeats wrote this poem. This correlation can be seen in the following lines – Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Yeats makes use of the image of a ‘gyre’ to get his point across. Being a spiral, the gyre opens outwards as it rises up and this motion of the gyre is what correlates with the instability and chaos of history as it moves. In regular circumstances, when a falconer sends out a falcon, he watches and waits with his falconer glove, for its return. Inevitably, the falcon always returns and comes back to its mater and sits on his glove. But in the poem, the poet has portrayed the falcon as flying too far off and getting itself lost. The following 4 lines in Stanza I, highlights violence and terror in the world and to give expression to his thoughts Yeat’s uses harsh phrases like - ‘Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold’, ‘Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’, ‘blood dimmed’ and ‘innocence drowned’. (Yeats W.B, ‘The Second Coming’) These lines bring out a situation of terror and violence and a feeling that there is a gush of water all around, drowning the innocence left in society, leaving people in despair and a bleak hope of survival. In the next two lines, Yeat’s uses comparison and contrast pitted against each other. Instead of using words like ‘good’ or ‘bad’, he makes use of words like ‘best’ and ‘worst’ to bring out his thoughts on what is good and bad in society. Describing society at a time when war was rampant, explains that society at that time was so chaotic that it was difficult to tell the difference between the good and bad that prevailed. Stanza II of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ begins with a glimmer of hope in the first two lines which states – Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. (The Second Coming – Yeats, (1865 -1939) These lines have the title of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ and through these lines the author wants to infuse some hope into a degenerated society. According to the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, ‘the second coming’ means that Christ will come among us and set right all the confusion and chaos in society. Here the poet attempts to make us hopeful of what is to come. ‘Spiritus Mundi’ is what the poet mentions in lines 11 to 13 of Stanza II. Literally speaking, ‘Spiritus Mundi’ refers to ‘spirit of the world’. In the poet’s opinion, all of us in this world are connected to each other in some way or the other. He continues this mysticism in line 14 when he says – A shape with lion body and the head of a man, In the above line, Yeats describes a mythical beast – ‘the sphinx’ which has the ‘head of a man’ and the body of a lion. The Egyptian sphinx is rather famous, but the poet is referring to the ancient archetypal sphinx symbol that had initially given inspiration to the Egyptian people to build such a structure in the desert and it is this symbol that inspires him now. The poet goes on to describe the expression of the sphinx which he describes as having a gaze that is blank, pitiless and inhuman. As inhuman as it is, it is indifferent to nature and incapable of showing any empathy towards other human beings. The imagery of desert birds is used to portray that there is an impending death. It is commonly known that desert birds such as the eagle and vulture, fly slowly in circles when something or someone is going to die and then they come down to feed on the carcass. In lines 18 to 20 of Stanza II, the poet brings down the curtain, marking the end of ‘Spiritus Mundi’. It initiates the reader with an impression of prophecy of things to come in the future. Considering the condition of Europe at that time after the war, the poet must have been reflecting on the future of Europe as well as on the future of the world. He also makes reference to ‘twenty years’ which depicts the time that has elapsed since Christ’s ‘first coming’ and now we are looking forward to the ‘second coming’ of Christ. The line that follows is quite abstract in its presentation, where the poet states – ‘We’re vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle’ The image of the cradle gives the reader an impression that a birth has taken place. However, in normal circumstances, a baby does not awake when a cradle is rocked because the swinging motion helps to put it to sleep. But here the poet says ‘vexed to nightmare’ reflecting the social upheaval during the warring times. The final two lines in Stanza II depict the clinching of the poet’s thoughts and ideas in this poem. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? (The Second Coming – Yeats, (1865 -1939) W.B Yeat’s vision of the ‘pitiless’ sphinx morphs into that of a ‘rough beast’ that makes it way to Christ’s birthplace, Jerusalem, - ‘to be born’. The animalistic slouching of the beast can be compared to the sphinx which is shown to be slow. Here, the poet uses the birth at Bethlehem as a metaphor for the passage of this terrible beast from the world of spirits ‘Spiritus Mundi’ into the real world of humans to create terror and havoc in the world. The beast represents everything that is bad in this world, all through the 20th century – World War II, the atom bomb and the horrific tyrant Hitler. The ‘nightmare’ that Yeats highlights is all the terrible things taken place in our society from the time he wrote this poem. Though the poet had no idea of the type of bad that would come to society, yet he had a notion that there was a downward slide in society and people needed to wake up before it was too late. In my opinion, though the poem seemed a bit abstract in its presentation, it had a lot of thought put into it, considering the time when the poet wrote this poem. The circumstances, considering the aftermath of the Second World War must have been horrifying and destructive to society and this situation must have been the source of inspiration to the writer. I really liked reading the poem and after analyzing it, it gave me a better understanding of the ideas presented by W.B. Yeats. Bibliography Harmon, William, (1998) ed. The Classic Hundred Poems. New York: Columbia University Press. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1923". Nobelprize.org. Web, 5th May 2013 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/index.htm The Second Coming – Yeats, (1865 -1939) Poem of the week, Web, May, 2013 www.potw.org Yeats, W. B. (1920) Michael Robartes and theDancer. Chruchtown, Dundrum, Ireland: The Chuala Press, (as found in the photo-lithography edition printed Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970.) Yeats W. B. The Second Coming, Web, May, 2013 www.shmoop.com Read More