The Second Coming

The Second Coming.

• Was published in 1920 and written in 1919
• Themes: disorder and chaos, upheaval , and apocalyptic visions.
• Yeats shows his dispears about society
• Shows yeats belief that the world is devided in to GYRES
• Shows the second coming of the anti christ not christ like everyone expected.
• Shows how new starts arent always good.
• Yeats believed he was a channel, and the poem was written by spirites through him
• Looks at how history will repeat its self continually if we dont change something
• Poem starts out focused and regular.
• lots of reference to circles and cycles.

Line by line.

• 1) Repitition ( a major feature in this poem) adds to sense of fate,doom,inveitiability and the apocalypse - that you cant escape.
• 3x"ings" gives the sense of spiralling out of control ( as if in a gyre)
• 2) reference to birds - he sees them as symbols of freedom
• a falcon= is trained to obey commands and tent to circle their prey
• Society has got so caught up in our own world we dont listen to the moral voice and spiritual values.
• The semi collon sets a scene
• 3) we have gone too far away from out belief systems ( the circle of the gyre is getting wider)
• "cannot "is repeated things are going to break down as things spiral out of control!
• 4) "mere" makes "anarchy" sound trivial which is juxtaposition
• "loosed shows the structure…