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by William Butler Yeats


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Turning and turning in the widening gyre 
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 
The best lack all conviction, while the worst 
Are full of passionate intensity. 
 
Surely some revelation is at hand; 
Surely the Second Coming is at hand. 
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 
A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 
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 
That twenty centuries of stony sleep 
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, 
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, 
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Posted by RG on March 24, 2008
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Danielle on whole page :

This poem begins with total chaos. A destructive gyre is turning and turning. I think the gyre symbolizes the state of the world. Since this poem was written after World War I, Yeats could be talking about the aftermath of war here (anarchy is loosed upon the world). Things are so terrible that maybe the second coming is at hand. There is the beast like figure with the body of a lion and the head of a man that appears from the desert. It seems like this is what Yeats thinks Christ to be, and he is ok with this beast like figure. This beast seems to have no cares for human kind. He is “pitiless as the sun”.

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March 25, 2008 6:12 pm
maegan on paragraph 2:

The whole poem seems to be stating that, since the world is in such terrible condition, the Second Coming of Christ must be at hand. The Bible states that when Jesus returns the world will be in mass chaos. Yates mentions that the good people in the world have no conviction to correct any of the problems facing the world while the bad are passionate about their own dark designs.

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March 26, 2008 8:14 am
Brenda on paragraph 2:

I like Yeats notion of cycles. I don’t know that I totally agree with it, but I can definitely see the pattern in world events.
Christianity and Judaism teaches two thousand year cycles and supposedly we are in the third two thousand year era (the age of grace) which is supposeded to last from the death of Christ to two thousand years later (about now), then the second coming, then a one thousand year cycle (making 7 thousand years total), then eternity.

It seems like Yeats believed that each new cycle ushered in new revelations. It appears that Yeats was worried about what beast (revelation, new cycle) was on the horizon. We know the answer to that today - WWII.

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March 27, 2008 2:10 pm
Brenda on whole page :

I wonder if this reference to the “best lacking all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” is taling about how a lot of peoples faith was devestated during WWI. All the poems we read of that time talked about how God had deserted them, mocked their calamity, and was indifferent to man’s suffering.

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March 27, 2008 2:15 pm
Kassidy on whole page :

I don’t care for this poem either. To be honest I really don’t get it at all. Sorry, I’m at a loss for words.

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March 27, 2008 11:30 pm

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