The extract has been taken from the poem ‘The Second Coming’ written by W.B. Yeats.

Published in 1919, the poem encapsulates the turmoil that upsurged after the first world war and
the decline of centuries old power structures. The poem was published directly after the Great
War and the Russian Revolution and Yeats being a Pacifist, it expresses his sentiments and
anxieties towards the unnecessary death and destruction brought about by wars. This was the
age when the Modernist style of writing was emerging, as a direct reaction to the rigidity and
discipline of the Victorian age. It signified a breaking away from conventions. It was the age of
experimentation.

In ‘The Second Coming’, Yeats introduces the symbol of the Gyre- a vortex that begins from a
singular point and spins till it goes out of control. This is in correspondence to his idea of
civilization, which he saw as an ever expanding gyre. It was a symbol representative of both
concord and discord as it led to the rise and decline of civilization. According to Yeats, the gyre
of civilization lasts for about 2000 years, at the end of which there is complete disruption of
order and a reign of chaos. This is how the dominant civilization reaches its decline, through an
inevitable collapse of systems and society. The usage of verbs such as “turning”, “widening”,
“fall apart”, “loosed”, indicate an energetic and violent activity in the first few lines. In Michael
Robartes and the Dancer Yeats says “at the present moment the life gyre is sweeping
outward...all our scientific, democratic, fact-accumulating civilization belongs to the outward
gyre…”.

The metaphor of the falcon that flies away from the falconer can be interpreted as the gyre of
civilization that has spun out of control. In his book A Vision, Yeats says this is a “loss of control
over thought”. It also hints at its associations with the Biblical metaphor of Christ as the
shepherd of humanity. Humanity has strayed from the path of religion and can no longer be
controlled by rigid religious doctrines. It shows the disillusionment of the society with the existing
conception of religion, particularly Christianity. Further, he laments the loss of innocence and
says that those who are capable of doing good have turned cynical and disillusioned owing to
the cruelty of the world, whereas wrongdoers burn with a “passionate intensity.” In a world
where chaos and confusion thrive, innocence has become subdued.

The destruction and energetic advancement of an apocalypse-like event in the first stanza is
juxtaposed with the ominous calm in the second stanza. The desert landscape and the beast's
shape “with lion body and the head of a man” suggest the Egyptian mythological creature
Sphinx in contrast to the usage of words that carry a Biblical weight- “revelation” and “the
second coming”. A binary between the Christian and Pagan, the West and East, the good and
the evil is established. The poem presents a problematic understanding of the Eastern
civilization as harbingers of violence to the West. The twentieth century was a time of
rootlessness and skepticism. Yeats acts as a spokesperson for the general anxiety faced by a
society ravaged by War. The beast could also be interpreted as the animalisation of the
Easterners who were perceived as uncivilized. The very specific reference to “Bethlehem” at the
end denotes a threat not just to the vast majority but particularly to Christianity.
Yeats was involved in the practice of the occult and was a member of The Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn. He had an infatuation towards secrecy and mysticism and along with his wife,
George Yeats, indulged in Automatic Writing. Psychography claims it as a technique which
allows a person to become a medium for communicating with spirits and produce written words.
Later, Yeats published these writings in his book A Vision. From a poetic sense, the “Vision” is
defined by Denis Donoghue as something that “an artist sees with the mind's eye: it is an
internal power” (“Introduction: Toward the Poetry”). In 'The Second Coming’, his preoccupation
with visions is hinted at in the second stanza. Yeats believed in Spiritus Mundi, a collective
memory of the world that could be accessed in a state of trance. In the poem, the “vast image”
that agitates the poet arises out of Spiritus Mundi. This image quickly disappears and “the
darkness drops again”. This has been read by many critics as Yeats seeing the destructive
beast in a vision and the appearance of darkness signifies a symbolic darkness of the wakeful
world as compared to the trance. The dropping of the darkness marks the end of the trance.

Yeats attributed a central role to the power of imagination and its role in making nature
intelligible and thus a “part of our creative power” (Yeats). In the words of Denis Donoghue,
Yeats possessed “a sense of art as compensation for the chaos of personal life: it expresses his
hierarchical feeling for the poet as seer”. The poet as a seer comes alive in 'The Second
Coming’ as he prophesies the rise of an ancient, dormant beast. His poetic craft lies in taking
inspiration from old mythologies and applying them to daily occasions, which has also been
done in his poem 'No Second Troy’.