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Yeats as a symbolic poet
Wb yeats the second coming allusions
World war one poetry research assignment
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Drenched in a dark pessimism, and nightmarish imagery, Yeat’s intent with “The Second Coming” from a text-based perspective, is a prophetic warning to post-WWI Europe. As the narrator is personal - despite his minimal use of first person - and orates alike a prophet who’s illustrating a desolate vision he’s witnessing in real-time. The first stanza is the portrayal of his vision. A collapsing post-WWI society, sitting on and than exceeding the threshold of crisis, represented by symbolic lines such as: “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed.” Which refers to society exceeding the aforesaid threshold of crisis, and the resulting violence. The poem also highlights mans creeping separation from Christian ideologies, though with ambiguity. As the line …show more content…
The second stanza is in sonnet form, and develops the poem further by introducing a sphinx-like creature. This creature is akin to an anti-Christ of sorts, and a play on the Christian prophecy that the poem is named after. The metaphorical meaning of this creature is encased in modernism ambiguity, modernism being an unconventional literary style, with open-ended symbolism and messages. And thus, reader’s have yet to unanimously agree on an interpretation. However, I and several others, interpret it as the physical embodiment of the products of a conflicted post-WWI environment. Since the environment in the first stanza is volatile, and of it may arise a wretched and vile place that would envelope violence, and death. Violence and death that may derive from malicious intent and the scuffle of control from various states. And overall, makes for a frightening reality. Under this sentiment the logic becomes clear as to why readers commonly interpret the second stanza as an inadvertent prophecy of …show more content…
As the poem can be interpreted in numerous ways, and therefore, its message has a flexibility that enables its readers to mould it’s meaning to befit them. Thus, allowing its messages to be applicable to anyone, regardless of demographic. For example, the poem can also be interpreted by Christians as man’s decaying interest of Christian ideologies and the supposed products of this decay. A view held by plenty of older Christians and a important view for Christian youth to acquire in order to cement their beliefs. Though the message conveyed by Yeats that can be applicable to all contemporary youth, is that depravity and tension arouses conflict. And when we look forward, we feel our anxiety stir at the inevitable - at the international conflict embedded in humanities future. Why will this conflict occur? Because if relations between ‘super-powers’ are withered now, how would it cope though overpopulation, the depletion of resources and other problems ever nation has to overcome? How can we be sure that these super-powers won’t value land, and resources such as oil over their populations in order to maintain their economic and political power? We don’t. This is why a third world war is indeed probable, and why this poem’s core message is still relevant to all
"The blood-dimmed tied is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned". As many currently see our society today, Yeats was in fear of what the future had in store, and felt it necessary to warn society of their abominable behavior. All of the good in the society has been taken over and overwhelmed by the horrible actions. No longer do ceremonies, or acts of kindness, take place, which Yeats believes is a direct effect of the loss of youth and innocence. "That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle". This quote from "The Second Coming" informs the society that if they do not begin to correct their transgressions against one another as a whole they will awake the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ will come to claim his Jesus and correct the predicament that they have gotten themselves in to.
The ethical life of the poem, then, depends upon the propositions that evil. . . that is part of this life is too much for the preeminent man. . . . that after all our efforts doom is there for all of us” (48).
The first stanza begins with a familiar setting, a “… winter evening”(1). This is associated with a lack of growth and a loss of vitality. It also describes death and desolation. This does not last long when we are confronted,” with smells of steaks in passageways”(2) paints a picture of a polluted and mundane environment. The precise use of descriptive words composes this mood of decline and despair. As seen when you read ” …the burnt-out ends of smoky days”(4).
William Butler Yeats wrote the poem, “On Being Asked for a War Poem,” after he was asked to write a political poem on the first World War. Many feel that this poem reflects Yeats’ inner conflict over whether poets can write war poetry. To others, this poem considers a recurring question, what is the role of the poet in society, and what is the function of poetry? In this poem, Yeats communicates his opinion that a poet should speak only about traditional romantic subjects and leave the war to soldiers and politicians. In one line in particular he states that poets “have no gift to set a statesman right.” The position taken by Yeats is that poets have no “gift”, or ability, to tell statesman how they should make decisions. In his opinion,
In the third stanza, the language becomes much darker, words like: anger, explode, and against make this stanza seem even more warlike than the first stanza.
However, according to my Christian beliefs, God sent his son, Jesus, to Earth to die and pay for the sins of all people, and one day Jesus will return to Earth to take all Christian believers to Heaven; I believe that Yeats named his poem “The Second Coming” because it portrays his prediction that Jesus’, “Second Coming is at hand” (524). Yeats dedicates the entire first stanza of his poem to telling the reader the problems that he sees with politics and violence/terror, “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed” (524). The second stanza of the poem basically says that “surely” Jesus will return soon and he describes a beast-like character that could possibly be representing Satan, God’s demon opponent in the Book of
The narrator of W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming" claims that "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate certainty"(7-8). While I do not agree with the statement in itself, I do agree with it within the words of the poem. In the context of the poem, within which there is "Mere anarchy loosed upon the world" (4), the statement speaks of how those with evil intentions are quick to take advantage of the chaos for their own agenda. On their own, however, the words do not quite make sense. Applied to W.B. Yeats' other poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death", the words still hold some merit, while they do not quite work in a situation such as the one in T.S Elliot's "The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock". Overall, the words do not hold their stature in most other circumstances.
In his poem, “The Second Coming”, William Yeats demonstrates the idea adversity plays a heavy role in influencing an individual’s identity. “The Second Coming” develops the idea that an individual’s identity will be affected negatively when faced with adversity. In other words, when the speaker realizes that the world around him is in ruins, he beings believe that it cannot be saved. Firstly, due to the first world war, many tragic scenes are witnessed such as the lives of innocent people being lost which causes the speaker to believe that the same event will happen in the future. Secondly, although the speaker possesses a small hope that things will change for the better, he cannot help but envision more terrible images such as vultures waiting
Wisdom becomes bleary, much like peering through 'midnight oil'(ln60), and confusion has been loosed through knowledge.With wisdom creating bleary vision, Yeats concludes that we have no way of knowing the 'dancer from the dance'(ln64). We have no capacity for understanding how to fulfill this dance as it cannot even be determined by the conscious individual. The dance may only be completed by what Carl Jung has termed 'the collective unconscious'. If one's consciousness has reached a new parallel in the continual turning gyre, one's awareness may be considered one thread closer towards confusion and anarchy. Each step taken into further consciousness may be considered a step in the direction towards confusion as the gyre is turning away from innocence. Conflict will be the resultant.
The poem, “The Second Coming,” by William Yeats tells of a society crumbling upon itself, the very, “centre cannot hold,” (line 3). Chaos is, “loosed upon the
Yeats wrote his poem in response to the rise of fascism and communism which threatened to destroy Europe. Yeats believed that history revolved in two thousand-year cycles. The end of the cycles resulted in chaos and destruction. Much like "Things Fall Apart", "The Second Coming" addresses the idea of balance, interdependence, individualism, and community. Achebe shows how the interruption of the cyles in the Ibo culture caused things to slowly fall apart. The poem addresses the cyclic movements of events and history. As a result, both can be seen as being intertwined.
“Sailing to Byzantium”, published in 1928, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, published in 1919, and “The Second Coming”, published in 1920, are all some of the most highly regarded works of William Butler Yeats. Although each poem seemingly contains its own personal ideas and focus on particular topics, one common theme is found throughout all three: death. In “Sailing to Byzantium” Yeats discusses the matter of growing old and attempting to find a way to live eternally after death has taken its toll, while in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” he creates an internal dialogue of an Irish airman as he feels he is about to take his final flight into death, and lastly in “The Second Coming” he creates an allegory for post-war Ireland by alluding to the Apocalypse. Each of these poems is popular not only due to the incredible manner in which they were written, but rather, due to the voice in which Yeats discusses each of the poem’s respective subjects. Through his modernist style, yet traditional form, William Butler Yeats wrote “Sailing to Byzantium”, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, and “The Second Coming” as an attempt to answering the difficult questions that surround death in a way which resonated so strongly onto the audience that continues its legacy to this day.
This refrain enforces his disgust at the type of money hungry people that the Irish have become. In the third and fourth stanza, however, Yeats completely changes the tone of his poetry. He praises the romantics of Irish history, such as Rob...
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. -Psalm 91: 1-6 ” (Jesus) The Second Coming, written by William Butler Yeats, addresses the concept of the gyre and portrays an approach to a new world order. Yeats expresses his belief of the soon coming end of the
Yeats, an Irish nationalist, used the three poems, “To Ireland in the Coming Times,” “September 1913” and “Easter 1916” which revealed an expression of his feelings about the War of Irish Independence through theme, mood and figurative language. The theme of nationalism dominates in “To Ireland in the Coming times” and in “Easter 1916.” In the former poem, Yeats suggested the idea of Irish brotherhood to achieve justice for Ireland, “True brother of a company, that sang, to sweeten Ireland’s wrong” (Finneran 50). Although he wanted to fight for Ireland’s freedom, he did not participate in any military activities. Instead, he used songs and poems to reflect the situation in Ireland: I cast my heart into my rhymes, That you, in the dim coming times, May know how my heart went with them (Finneran 51).