The poem “The Second Coming” was written by W. B. Yeats in 1919 soon after the end of the First World War. It is one of the most quoted and famous poems of W. B. Yeats.
Historical and Literary Context
W. B. Yeats was one of the most prominent Irish poets along with Seamus Heaney. Born in 1865, he began writing at the age of seventeen. The poem The Second Coming was published in his collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921.
W. B. Yeats was influenced by the English Romantic Poets such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, and William Blake and the French Symbolists such as Arthur Rimbaud and Stephen Mallarmé, etc.
While he took his inspiration for writing this poem from the Biblical Book of Revelation. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is said to return to the earth in order to save humanity.
The poem does not clearly state the setting of the poem but many critics consider its date into significance since it was written after World War I and the destruction it caused.
It can also be taken as a prediction of World War II as suggested by the arrival of the beast, still, the poem’s historical context is ambiguous.
The Second Coming Summary
Stanza I (line 1-8)
The poem begins with the speaker saying that a falcon is turning again and again in a widening spiral and it cannot hear the call of its owner. Things break and fall off while the center can no longer hold it.
Anarchy has spread over the world and the tidal wave has darkened by blood. The rituals of innocence have been drowned in this tide. Good people are unmotivated and have no energy while the bad ones are eager and passionate full of energy.
Stanza II (line 9-22)
The second stanza begins with the speaker saying that surely a revelation is soon approaching and the second coming is also coming closer. The speaker excitedly says that the second coming is soon to come but then suddenly his sight is troubled by the vision of the universe’s collective soul.
He sees in the sands of a desert where a creature with a lion’s body and a man’s head. The creature has an empty and pitiless expression as the sun and its legs are moving slowly. The shadows of disturbed desert birds are moving all about it.
Darkness spreads all over everything but the speaker says that he now knows something new that two thousand years of calm and comfortable sleep has been disrupted by the shaking of a cradle.
The speaker says that the rough beast slowly moves towards Bethlehem where it will be born.
The Second Coming Themes
Christianity
The poem has the theme of Christianity. Its title is about the second coming or the return of Jesus Christ to earth in order to save humanity. The poem describes a world full of chaos and disturbance in the beginning and the reader expects the return of Jesus Christ as it is predicted in the Bible that a bad stage will be followed by a good one.
But as the poem progresses, we come to know that instead of Jesus Christ’s return, a beast arrives. The beast seems to collapse the Christian world.
Civilization
The poem also has a theme of human civilization. The speaker says that human beings have civilized themselves through centuries but still his beastly side is not dead. He says that it is humans who have caused destruction to the natural world.
Pessimism
Though the title suggests the return of Jesus Christ to earth which is a hope for the betterment of humanity but as the reader keeps on reading, he gets to know that the second coming is not actually the return of Jesus Christ but the arrival of a beast that will cause the collapse of human civilization.
Pessimism is one of the main ideas of the poem because the speaker has no hope for the world to become a better place but has the fear of the arrival of a beast.
The Second Coming Literary Analysis
The poem is a mystical and ambiguous one. It has two stanzas where the first stanza has eight while the second stanza has fourteen lines. The poem is written in blank verse (unrhyming iambic pentameter).
It begins in confusion and chaos. The falcon which is a symbol of human civilization has lost connection with humans. Things are falling apart and there is no order or control over them. There is a system of lawlessness and disorder.
The speaker says that a tide of blood is loosened that has drowned innocence. The good ones are helpless and demotivated while the bad ones are full of energy and passion.
The blood-dimmed tide is a metaphor here that refers to World War I and the destruction it had done to the world and humanity.
The second stanza begins with the speaker having a tone full of hope. The speaker says that the second coming is closer. He is desperate about the happening of the second coming. In order to emphasize the idea of the second coming, the speaker uses anaphora.
He repeats the word “surely” in order to emphasize the fact that the second coming is going to happen very soon. But then he has a vision of the Spiritus Mundi. This reference to the Spiritus Mundi is an example of allusion.
The speaker sees in his vision, the coming of a beast in a desert. The beast has the body of a lion while the head of a human. It has an expression that is empty of any kind of pity. It moves slowly while the disturbed birds of the desert fly all around it.
The poem ends with a rhetorical question where the speaker says that the beast’s arrival has replaced the return of Jesus Christ and humanity might never get the second coming that it hopes for but rather the one that it deserves.
Significance of the Title
The title of the poem, “The Second Coming” has a thematic significance. The poem’s title refers to the second coming or the return of Jesus Christ in order to save humanity. The speaker of the poem describes the chaotic situation in the world and hopes for the second coming.
But his anxiety increases when he has a vision of a beast coming into life. Suddenly the concept of The Second Coming changes for the speaker and instead of happening something good, the worst occurs.
Point of View
The poem is written in a third-person narrative where the speaker of the poem is an unknown person but we still have some clues in the poem, about the speaker of the poem.
There is a clear difference between the tone of the first and the second stanza. The first stanza begins in a general way, listing all the chaos and disturbances in the world. So we cannot guess who the speaker of the poem is except for one thing that is the word “gyre” which is W. B. Yeats’ own philosophical idea.
The second stanza begins with a shift in the speaker’s tone. There is an air of desperation in the speaker’s tone when he talks about the second coming.
Though the chaos remains a mystery, the speaker gives a clue about it so we can say that the speaker is a visionary.
Tone
The tone of the poem does not remain the same throughout the poem rather it changes from stanza one to stanza two. The tone of the poem is objective and general in the first stanza in which the speaker gives a general idea of the world but the tone becomes more personal and subjective in the second stanza.
The speaker suggests that the second coming is soon to come.
He desperately wants the second coming to happen and here is where the emotions are at height but then the tone becomes uncertain and doubtful towards the end of the poem as the speaker tells about the birth of a beast.
Form
The poem consists of two stanzas where the first stanza has eight while the second stanza has fourteen lines. The poem does not follow any standard form of poetry. Both the stanzas are quite different in attitude.
The first stanza begins with an objective approach while the second stanza is more personal and subjective. The poem ends in doubt and fear which arises from the prophecy about the future of the world. It gives a prophecy that the future of the world is not going to be a good one.
Meter
The poem is written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). Iambic pentameter follows a da-DUM rhythm with five feet and total of ten syllables per line but there seems disturbance in the meter of the poem, especially in the second stanza.
The poem’s first line begins with an irregularity in the meter.
Turning | and turn- | ing in | the wid– | ening gyre (line 1)
The fal- | con can – | not hear | the fal– | coner; (line 2)
The poem begins with a trochee instead of an iamb. The second stanza begins with the same effect, with a trochee instead of an iamb.
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert (line 13)
A shape with lion body and the head of a man, (line 14)
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, (line 15)
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it (line 16)
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds (line 17)
Above is the most unstable and metrically irregular section of the poem. It has variations of syllables and has inconsistent stresses.
Throughout the poem, there is a regular tension between the regular meter and variations in meter in order to mirror the confusion and chaos in the poem.
Setting
The setting of the poem is not clear but rather abstract. The poem begins with a falcon moving in a “widening gyre” where “gyre” is a philosophical idea rather than a concrete location so it is difficult to set the first stanza of the poem in a concrete location.
According to W. B. Yeats, “gyre” is a spiral shape that represents the movement of history. Accordingly, we can say that the setting of the poem is the whole world with a sense of anarchy, chaos, and disturbance which cannot be specified to a particular place but the whole world.
Since the poem was written after World War I, it can be said that the poem is set in the twentieth century. The poem mentions “twenty centuries” which confirms that the poem is set in the twentieth century (twenty centuries after the death of Jesus Christ).
The second stanza specifically talks about the setting of the poem. The speaker has a vision from the Spiritus Mundi. The vision is set in a barren and sandy desert. The vision gets even more specified when the poem mentions Bethlehem which is the place of birth of Jesus Christ, according to Christianity (a place located in modern-day Palestine).
Symbolism
The Falcon
At the beginning of the poem, the falcon is used as a symbol to represent humanity’s control over the world. It says that the falcon cannot hear the call of the falconer which points towards the loss of that control. In order to understand the symbol, we need to know about falconry which is a thousand years old practice.
It involves people training prey birds such as hawks and Falcons for hunting purposes as well as for art’s sake. In both these forms, it shows humanity’s control over the natural world.
The fact that the falcon cannot hear the falconer’s call represents a loss of communication and this chaos and disturbance.
The Beast
The second stanza talks about the vision of a beast. Though we are not told specifically about the poem, a clear and detailed vision is given.
The beast has a human head and the body of a lion that makes it similar to a sphinx or a manicure which are mythical creatures, always predatory towards humans. Its animal body and human head suggest that something wrong is going to happen.
Though humans have tried to civilize themselves, they have not killed their beastly side, rather it has only been hidden.
The beast might also represent the human civilization that has a “gaze” that is empty of any type of empathy and that is ready to prey.
Literary Devices
Alliteration
The poem begins with the repetition of the consonant sound /t/ and /f/;
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1)
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; (line 2)
Alliteration in the above lines represents disorientation and confused movement. The repetition of the consonant sound /f/ shows that there is a huge distance between the falcon and the falconer. It shows that the gap between them cannot be bridged.
The next example of alliteration is where the vision of the Spiritus Mundi is described:
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert (line 13)
The above line shows a repetition of the sibilant sound /s/ that gives a whispering kind of tone to the line. The sibilance here is significant in creating the image of a desert and a beast coming into life.
The next example of alliteration is:
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, (line 20)
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, (line 21)
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? (line 22)
The repetition of the consonant sound /r/ creates an atmosphere of threat and violence while the consonant sound /b/ gives a sense of the beast taking and its shape and coming to life.
Allusion
The title of the poem itself is an allusion that refers to the Christian belief that Jesus Christ will return to earth. According to the final book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ’s arrival will bring the final judgment and only true Christians will be saved.
Before the second coming, as it is believed, there will be wars, famine, hatred, etc. Or the poem refers to the catastrophic events that took place in World War I, the poem suggests that it is the time for the Second Coming. But instead of something good to happen such as the arrival of Jesus Christ, a beast has arrived.
In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker refers to Spiritus Mundi which is the Latin of “world spirit”. According to W. B. Yeats, it is the collective human unconscious from which poets draw their inspiration. The speaker’s mysterious vision might as well have been drawn from it.
At the end of the poem, the speaker alludes to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ which means the principal subject of the poem is Christianity.
Antithesis
One of the best and clear examples of antithesis in the poem is as given below:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst (line 7)
It clarifies a difference between the two, that the best lack any type of conviction while the worst have passionate intensity.
Another example of antithesis is the clear distinction between what ought to happen and what is actually going to happen. The speaker hopes for the return of Jesus Christ in order to save humanity but he gets the vision of the arrival of a beast.
Anaphora
The first two lines of the second stanza begin with the same word “surely” which is an example of anaphora. For example:
Surely a revelation is at hand; (line 9)
Surely the second coming is at hand. (line 10)
The word “surely” expresses a personal opinion that the speaker gives in order to point towards the second coming. The speaker thinks that the second coming, predicted in the Bible, is closer. There is an air of desperation when the speaker talks about the second coming.
He pleads the second coming to come soon but a frightening and terrifying scene is created a few lines later in the poem when the vision of a beast is given.
The poem has another example of antithesis in the description of the body of the beast having a human head and an animal body.
Having a human head but the body of a lion (the king of animals), the antithesis here suggests the beastly nature of human beings. Despite their being civilized, they have the nature of beasts.
Assonance
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1)
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; (line 2)
The very beginning of the poem has an example of assonance. The repetition of the short vowel sounds, highlighted in bold in the above lines, reflects the short and quick movements of “turning and turning” which suggests that the falcon and the falconer have lost their connection.
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it (line 16)
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. (line 17)
The darkness drops again; but now I know (line 18)
That twenty centuries of stony sleep (line 19)
The above lines have a repetition of the long vowel sound /o/ that shows the movement of a new beastly creature and the progress of its coming to life.
That twenty centuries of stony sleep (line 19)
The above line describes a long span of time. The repetition of the long vowel sound /ee/ reflects that long span of time.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, (line 21)
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? (line 22)
Another long vowel sound /ou/ is repeated in the above two lines which refers to the beast’s coming to life and its slouching movement.
Caesura
The first stanza of the poem is like one long sentence made of several independent clauses.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; (line 3)
The caesura here splits two independent sentences. The caesura here has significance when the speaker says that things fall apart and the center cannot hold itself; the center of the line cannot hold itself as it is split using a caesura.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere (line 5)
The comma after the “loosed” in the above line is used to feel the line “loosed” itself.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst (line 7)
The comma in the above line is used to develop antithesis between the best and worst.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out (line 11)
Here the caesura, which is an exclamation mark, is used to show the speaker’s exasperation and the upsetting feelings that he feels that the second coming has not yet arrived.
The examples of caesura in lines 16, 18, and 21 slow down the pace of the poem in order to show the slow but heavy movements of the arriving beasts.
Consonance
The very first line of the poem shows an example of consonance as follows:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1)
The repetition of the consonant sound /n/ reflects confused and repeated movements of the falcon due to the lost connection with its master.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere (line 5)
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; (line 6)
The consonant sound /d/ is flooded through the lines reflecting that “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed”.
Enjambment
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi (line 12)
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert (line 13)
The above lines are enjambed. Just like the speaker is overcome by a vision of the Spiritus Mundi, the statement also continues and spreads through the lines.
Epistrophe
Epistrophe is used at the beginning of the second stanza. For example:
Surely a revelation is at hand; (line 9)
Surely the second coming is at hand. (line 10)
Here is when the speaker gives a personal opinion after the more general tone used in the first stanza. The epistrophe helps readers get an idea that something is going to happen very soon. The repetition of the phrase “at hand” has an air of desperation that the speaker wants the second coming to happen as soon as possible.
The speaker believes that the second coming ought to come and is very close but the vision set in the following lines is opposite to what the speaker expects.
Metaphor
The poem begins with a metaphor in the very first line as given below:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1)
The “widening gyre” in the above line is a metaphor for the lost connection between the falcon and the falconer where the falcon is humanity’s civilization or the natural world and the falconer is mankind.
The lost connection between the falcon and falconer shows the chaos and confusion in the world where the “best” people are unable to take any action, in whose hands the system ought to be.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; (line 3)
In the above line, the phrase “centre cannot hold” is a metaphor where the “centre” is a metaphor for the Christian world and the weakening center is a metaphor for the imminent collapse of the Christian world.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere (line 5)
“The blood-dimmed tide” is a metaphor for how the collapse of the Christian world occurs. It suggests that there will be floods of bloodshed during this process.
Rhetorical Question
The poem ends with a rhetorical question as given:
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, (line 21)
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? (line
The rhetorical question put in the above lines undermines the Christian belief that Jesus Christ will one day come and save humanity. The first stanza suggests that humanity cannot be saved while the overall poem suggests that the Christian world is about to collapse.
On the contrary to the Christian faith, a beast is shown coming. The rhetorical question leaves readers in a sense of uncertainty, doubt, and fear. The coming of a beast shows that something terrible is going to happen but no one can guess what?
Diacope
The very first line of the poem has the example of diacope as given:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre (line 1)
In the above line, “turning” is repeated with an intervening “and” that reflects the confused and repeated movement of the falcon.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, (line 4)
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere (line 5)
The above lines have another example of a diacope. The poet has not repeated the word immediately but is repeated in the next line. The poet has used this type of repetition in order to make the idea of looseness.
Surely the Second Coming is at hand. (line 9)
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out (line 10)
The speaker talks about the second coming for the first without any fear or desperation but when he repeats it in the next line, he repeats it with an air of desperation and anxiety.
Rhyme Scheme
The poem does not have a regular rhyme scheme. The first four lines of the poem almost rhyme as gyre/falconer and hold/world, but not completely rhyme.
The poem does not have strong end rhymes in order to paint a picture of a chaotic world as the third line of the poem says “the centre cannot hold”. A regular rhyme scheme would suggest a world full of order and harmony whereas this pattern of a non-consistent rhyme scheme suggests a world of anarchy, disorder, and disturbance so it has a thematic significance.
The 9th and 10th lines of the poem do technically rhyme but that is because they both end with the same word “hand” which is an epistrophe that emphasizes the idea of the second coming or how the speaker feels about it.
