Monday, June 29, 2009
"The Second Coming"
Yeats' “The Second Coming” was about the chaos going on in the world. His description in this poem sort of reminds me of the Book of Revelation or just the mind of an artist; "A shape with lion body and the head of a man"(line 14, 1122). Yeats says that the "falcon"(humans)cannot hear the "falconer"(God) thus everything is falling apart. As a consequence, the second coming is near. He feels that all the bad people are getting more power while the innocent are suffering; "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." This is exactly how the world is today. The bad is getting worse and the good are sometimes not even recognized. The repetition of the phrase "The Second Coming", lets me know that Yeats' wants us readers to take heed to such an event. "Surely some revelation is at hand;" considering the fact that the world and the events that are occurring are getting worse. The last few verses "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" makes me wonder if he's talking about Satin and Christ. Its a little tricky to comprehend but I believe he's saying that the Devil will not win the war that he has created but instead Christ-who was born in Bethlehem will when His second coming occurs.
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Tisha,
ReplyDeleteGood job comparing and contrasting Yeats’ work with the Christians’ belief of a Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I thought this was a really interesting connection, but I think what makes Yeats so fascinating is that he leaves so much up for interpretation. I noticed that this was written right after WWI. Do you think he was equating the world after the Great War with that of what the world is prophesized to be like during the second coming? That’s what I made from this work, but like I said, it is so hard to analyze. What do you think?
Tisha,
ReplyDeleteGood topic for a post, since Yeats's famous and difficult poem has been the center of a lot of discussion. Your discussion of the poem does feature some good quotations to explore, but you don't really make the best use of them. You seem to rush your analysis, not setting up a clear context or explanation of the lines you quote, and then not digging into the passages in enough depth. As a result you seem to leap to conclusions and cannot persuade your reader of your interpretation. Also, be sure to proofread for spelling--I assume you mean Satan, rather than Satin, but the misspelled name is pretty distracting.
Really good analysis, this poem was somewhat difficult for me, but very interesting. I agree with Alex in the sense that Yeats was really big on leaving his writings up to the interpretation of the reader, which can be seen as either a gift or a curse. But what stuck with me from this poem was this quotation from the first stanza, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity" (line 7-8 1122). I think he wrote it, at least partially, in hopes that people will be more passionate about doing the right thing, as opposed to people who act in poor or disruptive ways.
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