The Second Coming

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,

Footnotes 

1
Diacope is a device by which a word is repeated with one or two other words intervening.
“The Second Coming” uses diacope several times, beginning with the first line. By repeating
the word “turning” in rapid succession, Yeats emphasizes the cyclical progression of time
while establishing rhythm and musicality.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
2
The noun “gyre” refers to a spiraling form. In this poem, Yeats portrays time as a turbulent
force spiraling outward, carrying society forward in confusion and disorder.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
3
Yeats includes a caesura in this line. A caesura is a break, usually in the form of punctuation,
within a line of verse. Here, interrupting this line with a semicolon (;) creates a pause that
underscores the extent of the described destruction. Doing so builds the reader’s expectations
of either a resolution or a catastrophic ending, which is immediately addressed in the second
stanza.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
4
The noun “anarchy” means a state of social disarray, usually in the absence of—or the refusal
to acknowledge—authority. Yeats’s understatement in the phrase “mere anarchy”—where
“mere” takes on an archaic meaning of total or absolute—illustrates the dismal state of
society while also suggesting that people are suffering because they lack an orderly authority
figure such as God.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
5
Lines five, six, and seven feature anaphora, or the repetition of a word or words at the
beginning of successive lines or phrases. By repeating “the” at the beginnings of successive
lines, Yeats rhetorically conveys emotional intensity in a way that reinforces both the poem’s
chaotic imagery and its rhythm.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
6
Lines nine and ten use epistrophe, or the repetition of words at the end of successive lines or
phrases. Yeats repeats the words “is at hand” to underscore the urgency of the present
moment—specifically, humanity’s desperate need for relief from “the blood-dimmed tide” of
“mere anarchy” that has been “loosed upon the world.”
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
7
Yeats alludes to the Christian belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Many Christians
believe, based on messianic prophecies in the New Testament, that Christ will rise again for a
second time. Though specific ideas about the Second Coming vary by Christian
denomination, most Christians believe that Christ’s return will bring salvation and access to
the Kingdom of Heaven.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
8
The phrase “Spiritus Mundi” is Latin for “world spirit.” Yeats is engaging with the Platonic
idea that all people are united in one collective mind and that a person’s imagination reflects
the contents of this broad consciousness. Referring to Spiritus Mundi here thus lends
significance to the “vast image” the speaker sees, for this vision is derived from humanity’s
collective mind as opposed to one person’s subjective musings.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
9
Yeats employs sibilance, or the repetition of words containing the letter “s,” in line thirteen.
The hissing sound generated when these sibilant words are read aloud creates a foreboding,
sinister tone that foreshadows the speaker’s vision as a horrific one.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
10
The “shape with lion body and the head of a man” is a mythological creature: the sphinx.
Sphinxes are present in a number of pre-Christian mythologies, with the most famous being
those of Egypt and of Greece. The New Testament describes the Second Coming as being
preceded by the appearance of beasts which persecute the faithful. Yeats subverts the reader’s
expectations by portraying the arrival of a pre-Christian, “pitiless” monster instead of biblical
beasts or the expected forgiveness of Christ.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
11
The adjective “indignant” means to experience or express anger or displeasure at what is
perceived as unfair or unjust. Its use here suggests not only that the beast has disturbed the
desert birds as it moves towards Bethlehem, but also that its presence is generally unjust,
which sharply contrasts with the Christian idea of the righteousness and inevitability of the
Second Coming.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
12
The repetition of “ee” sounds in the words “twenty,” “centuries,” “stony,” and “sleep” is an
example of assonance, or the repetition of vowel sounds. Here, assonance subtly draws out
the reading process by highlighting similar sounds, thus urging the reader to take note of the
scene that has unfolded in the speaker’s vision.
— Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff
13
The adjective “vexed” means to feel frustration, distress, or irritation. Yeats creates a subtle
contrast between the turmoil described in the preceding stanza and the “stony sleep” that was
“vexed to nightmare” over the last twenty centuries—since Christ ascended into heaven,
according to Christian tradition. Thus, it seems that bloodiness and anarchy are symptomatic
of the Second Coming as opposed to being its cause.

1. Introduction

As the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar ends on December, 21 in 2012, many people
suggest this date marks the end of the world or of human civilization. Regarding this
contemporary doomsday theory, it is of a certain interest that already in the early twentieth
century William Butler Yeats was concerned with this kind of apocalyptic worldview.
However, he not just believed in the apocalypse, he was known for his prophetic insights and
imaginative visions of the breakdown of civilization. “The Second Coming” therefore is one
of the poems that also represents his understanding of the apocalypse, which is not
comparable to those who believe in the prophecy of the Mayan calendar. “For him, the
apocalypse is always connected with genuine spiritual revelation [and] with vision,” as it is
the literal translation of the Greek word (Howes, Kelly 2006: 52).

With this iconic, prophetic poem, he is not only regarded a public hero but also deviates from
established popular beliefs, wherefore he is also named the first iconoclastic Modernist in
English writing. The stunning, violent imagery and terrifying ritualistic language makes “The
Second Coming” an archetypal poem about the return of history with violence. Likewise, as it
was composed in 1919 and published in 1920, it represents Yeats’ immediate reaction to the
political instable situation of Ireland, England and Europe after Civil War, Russian
Revolution and WWI.

In consequence to that, “The Second Coming” is one the most obscure works of Yeats, hence
quite difficult to understand in the first place. For this reason, firstly, this paper concentrates
on the historical and political background information, which is fundamental to the poem’s
understanding.

Secondly, it is this examination’s method to analyze and interpret the poem’s form, structure
and images. At that, not only “The Second Coming” in its structure but also this chapter
divides into three parts, from which each displays another phase in the development of the
poet’s state of mind. Consequently, each line of “The Second Coming” is examined, both to
explain the poet’s development and to prove the central issues of W.B. Yeats’ poem.
Eventually, this paper provides a conclusion, wherein its argumentation is summarized. This
summary consequently also states the poem’s effect on the reader.

2. Background Information on W.B. Yeats and “The Second Coming”

As already mentioned before, “The Second Coming” is one of the most obscure works of
William Butler Yeats. In consequence to that, for the poem’s understanding, the details of its
specific time and place, both in historical and personal terms, have to be regarded.

“The Second Coming” was composed in 1919 and first published in 1920 in The Dial. For
obvious reasons it encompasses events of the Irish Civil War, the Russian Revolution and the
First World War. So, during the early twentieth century, Europe was confronted with the
horrors of war. However, especially the Irish civilization could hardly recover from all the
overwhelming experiences, as the turmoil in Ireland put on hold during World War I:

For 1919 had brought the end of the First World War and, for the Irish, a time of what
seemed deliberate reprisals on England’s part for the nationalistic efforts that had gained
strength while English attention was focused on Germany (Unterecker 1973: 182).

In 1921, Ireland signed the Government of Ireland Act, which decided over its separation.
Whereas the southern twenty-six counties became the “Irish Free State”, still part of the
Commonwealth, the six Ulster counties remained under British dominion. William Butler
Yeats himself had a personal interest in the future of Ireland. In concrete, he has always been
interested “in the Irish eighteenth century, in authoritarian forms of government, and the
violent or degenerative historical changes he contemplated through contemporary events and
the historical changes” (Howes, Kelly 2006: 16). He was not only member of the Irish
Republican Brotherhood, which built the armed branch of the Irish Volunteers that were
eventually engaged in Civil War, he was also named senator of the Free Irish State in 1922.
Although he accepted the partition and encouraged others to do so as well, Yeats was not
comfortable with Ireland’s newfound liberation after all:

He was still compelled […] to define this new nation. He now bears the onus of creating a
definition independent of rather than in opposition to Britain” (Thaut 2001:16).

His nationalistic idea of an independent Ireland and his resistance to England mirrors in the
poem “The Second Coming”. Additionally, like much of his poetry of the early 1920s, it also
considers the nature of foundational violence:

While poetically considering violent acts of foundation, and thus mirroring the changes and
transformations in the wider political sphere, Yeats was aware of the problems of stagnation
when that violent impetus was no longer required (Hand 2001: 201).
Although Yeats both feared and desired apocalyptic destruction, “The Second Coming”
expresses his fear about a world apparently descending into chaos and also meditates on
historical, political and personal transitions (Cf. Howes, Kelly 2006: 12). It focuses on the
increasingly turbulent events in Ireland in the context of historical cycles, but also reaches
over to resonate with personal concerns.

In consequence to that, during this period in which Ireland - and actually the whole world -
underwent such profound changes, Yeats also experienced profound changes in his own life.
In 1917, he married Georgie Hyde-Less, even if he was fatally attracted to Maude Gonne
since many years - something that basically never changed. With her ability of automatic
writing his wife however “breathed new life into Yeats’ old mysticism” (Thaut 2001: 16).
Yeatsian works of this period give evidence of his converging interest in literature,
nationalism and philosophy and his return to myth, whereby he was not any longer focused
on Celtic mysticism but on the myths of Christianity and pagan Egypt.

Seeing the world through an “occult lense” again, his political worldview became strongly
tied to his knowledge in occult lore. He believed politics and religion to be part of the same
enterprise, and inevitably foresaw crucial shifts in cultural and class politics as well as in the
relationship of Ireland to England to Europe. Tumbled with the experiences of the violence of
war, he developed his own ideas for the contemporary world political situation, and also had
his own mystical view of the history and the future end of the world. Consequently, William
Butler Yeats began to create the philosophy of gyres, which became prevalent images in his
poetry. This philosophy of gyres is not of any lasting importance, except for the impact it had
on his poetry, because it reappears in A Vision, “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Byzantium”.
Additionally, it is extremely complicated, wherefore Yeats outlined his theory in a note on
“The Second Coming”: […] the end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the
character of the next age, is represented by the coming of one gyre to its place of the greatest
expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction (Finneran 2002: 503).

With those intersecting cone-shaped spirals Yeats’ understanding of the apocalypse and his
belief in the reversal of eras is expressed. He “manages to hint the end of all while explicitly
the reversal of the world’s gyre, the birth of a new, violent, bestial anti-civilization in the
destruction of the two-thousand-year Christian cycle” (Unterecker 1973: 165). This
comprehension of history is rooted in the history of the Greco-Roman Empire. After enjoying
a life span of 2000 years, the Greco-Roman civilization collapsed until Christ came and a
new civilization was born out of the ashes of the earlier civilization. As the present cycle of
history began two thousand years ago with the birth of Christ, likewise, the Christian
civilization has nearly run its course of two thousand years. Hence, in Yeats’ belief system,
history repeats itself with differences (Cf. Mann 2012: 15). Therefore, he believes a “second
coming” to be imminent, which means in Christian tradition the return of Christ, or
respectively the birth of Antichrist: the ‘second coming’, a phrase violently wretched from its
usual meaning of Christ’s return to establish a heaven on earth, and made, rather, to describe
the onset of a civilization or ‘anti- civilization’ founded on terrifying violence (O’Neill 2004:
135).

Thereby the importance of a poem like “The Second Coming” is its presentation of the
“difficult correlation between Christ and modern times on the one hand, on the other,
between Christ and the historical cycle that his coming invalidated” (Unterecker 1973: 185).
Further, it is with his iconic, prophetic, even apocalyptic imagery and thinking the most vivid
record of such prophetic insights William Butler Yeats is known for.
3. “The Second Coming” - Analysis and Interpretation

3.1 Form

The poem “The Second Coming” consists of two stanzas, with eight verses in the first stanza,
and 14 verses in the second one.

Its rhyme scheme is blank verse. O’Neill explains that this jagged blank verse is central to the
poem’s effectiveness, as it “moves from analysis in the first verse-paragraph to imaging in
the second” (2004: 135).

Moreover, the poem lives on a rough, loose and irregular iambic pentameter. Consequently,
most lines rhyme only coincidentally, such as “man” and “sun” (l. 14/15).

3.2 Structure

As mentioned already in the Introduction, with regard to its content the poem “The Second
Coming” divides into three parts, although it consists of two stanzas with regard to its form.
Consequently, each part of the poem describes another spiritual state of the poet. So, whereas
at the beginning of the poem, the poet is in control over his state of mind, he is no longer
calm, eventually. As the following chapter explains, the poet appears stirred and haunted with
his visions, which become more and more frighteningly and even violently.

For this reason, this chapter has been divided into exposition, rhetoric transition, and
interpretation of the exposition. Thereby, each of these subchapters firstly concentrates on its
particular spiritual state of the poet, and secondly, on its different images, which are analyzed
and interpreted in detail.