Transcript The Second Coming by Yeats

THE SECOND COMING
William Butler Yeats
Erika Meza, Kevin Almendarez, Jhonatan Orellana, Idalia
Orellana, Janeli Escalona
William Butler Yeats
Born on June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland
Moved to England in 1867 to help his father further his
career
Belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had
controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life
of Ireland
In 1885, an important year in Yeats's early adult life, he saw
his first publication, in the Dublin University Review
Yeats was profoundly influenced by the Irish nationalist and
revolutionary, Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1899
Proposed to Maud Gonne but was rejected
CONT...
He married Miss George Hyde-Lees in 1917 (having been rejected a few weeks
earlier by Iseult Gonne – Maud’s daughter)
He was deeply involved in politics in Ireland – he was appointed senator of the Irish
Free State in 1922 and served for six years.
Yeats was also a major playwright and a founder, with Lady Gregory and others, of
the Irish Theatre (now called Abbey Theatre) in Dublin.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923
He is one of the few recipients of the prize to write their greatest works after its
being awarded.
Died on January 28, 1939, Menton, France
History
The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of WWI
also known as The Great War
it was a global war centered in Europe which began in July 1914 and ended in November 1918.
9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died to the result of the war.
One of the deadliest conflicts in history which paved the way for many political changes.
The brutality of WWI was part of Yeats inspiration to write the Second Coming.
The Second Coming
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and
everywhere
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
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
The best lack all conviction, while the
worst
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Structure
Blank Verse poem
Has no fixed rhyme scheme
Rough iambic pentameter. The meter is not compact, unlike many other poems written by Yeats
Divided into 2 stanzas
1st stanza has 8 lines
2nd stanza has 14 lines
VOCABULARY
The Second Coming- when Jesus Christ will
return to earth in fulfillment of his promises and
to fulfill the prophecies made about him.
Spiritus Mundi- a term that describes the
collective soul of the universe containing the
memories of all time.
Gyre- a spiral; a vortex.
Indignant- feeling or showing anger at what is
perceived as unfair treatment.
Falconer- a person who keeps trains or hunts
with birds of prey.
Revelation- a surprising and previously
unknown fact, especially one that is made
known in a dramatic way.
Vexed- difficult and is much debated;
problematic.
Bethlehem- is a Palestinian city located in the
central West Bank; Christ’s birthplace
Diction & Tone
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
Are full of passionate intensity
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Negative
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
Positive
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Neutral
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Stanza 1
●
1.Turning and turning in the widening gyre
2.The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
●
3.Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
4.Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
5.The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
6.The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
●
7.The best lack all conviction, while the worst
8.Are full of passionate intensity
Imagery
Repetition
Metaphor
●
Enjambment
●
The falcon represents society, and the falconer
represents God. The falcon’s gyre is supposed to shrink
as it comes nearer to the falconer, but instead the gyre
is widening, suggesting that society is getting farther
from God.
“The centre” being the falconer, is an analogy to the
fragile state of society’s connection to God after WWI,
when traditional belief couldn’t hold in war’s
unbelievable destruction. The sentiment being that
man’s religion, philosophy, ideals, etc., the “center” of
everything, will be abandoned in times of darkness.
“loosed upon the world” sets an image of a flood of
disorder
Since the poem was written in 1919, Yeats is thinking here,
undoubtedly, of the mass bloodshed caused by World War I
(1914-18).
“Ceremony” is a word with very positive connotations for
Yeats; he associates it with the reassuring civility of custom
and ritual.
Here Yeats is referring to the constant fight between good and
evil, or better and baser human instincts. In these violent
times, good unfortunately seems down and out paralyzed or
“drowned” as described in the previous line. Intelligent and
decent people fail to act with confidence, while ignorant and
malicious people run over society.
●
Stanza 2
9.Surely some revelation is at hand;
10.Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
11.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
12.When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
13.Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
14.A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
●
Yeats is referring to the Book of Revelations which is in
the New Testament of the Holy Bible. This book
describes the return of Jesus Christ where he will come
to save his people from the beast during the apocalyptic
end of the world. The book tells Christians to stand firm
in faith and to avoid compromise with paganism. It also
gives a series of events that will happen before the
“Second Coming” of Christ.
Spiritus Mundi is the Latin Word for “World Spirit,” it has
some similarity to Carl Jung’s concept of collective
unconcious. It is a phrase of Yeats own creations which
goes along with other philosophies which are in his
book named A Vision.
15.A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
16.Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
17.Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
Personification
Imagery
Repetition
Enjambment
● He’s talking about the original, archetypal symbol of the
sphinx that first inspired the Egyptians to build the Great
Sphinx in the desert.
● Yeats suggests that the body movement of the sphinx is
moving the Christ closer and closer to the second coming.
● Spiritual masters are known to gaze blankly as they
transmit "the message" to their disciples. Yeats equates
this gaze and this transmission with the Sphinx, which he
also uses to denote the Second Coming of Christ.
Cont...
● Yeats uses an infant’s sleep as a
metaphor to the “Twenty centuries,”
the amount of time that has passed
since the "first coming" of Christ.
18.The darkness drops again; but now I know
19.That twenty centuries of stony sleep
20.Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
21.And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
22.Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Imagery
Metaphor
Enjambment
● the beast fulfills the second coming
promise by Christian theology, but the
beast is pagan and represents the antiChrist
● The last two lines end in a rhetorical
question
Quiz!!!!
1. In the first stanza, what vision of the world does the poet express?
2. What is the ‘’Second Coming’’?
3. In a couple of words what does the Book of Revelations describe in the bible?
4. What is Spiritus Mundi?
5. What is the setting of the poem when it was written?
6. What type of poem is it?
7. Who published Yeats first poem?