Ambika Palloo (Grade 12)

Section B: Unseen
The poem opens with a mysterious metaphor: a "falconer" who searches for his lost falcon within a
"widening gyre." The bird itself can't hear the falconer because of the way that the surroundings are
"widening. The speaker of the poem in the second stanza is reflecting on how he is sharing his own
opinions saying out that it must "surely" be time for "revelation" and the "Second Coming.”

The repeated "surely" and "Second Coming" suggest an air of desperation, which is increased by the
exclamation mark Caesura of line 11 and the speaker receives an image of unconscious ("Spiritus
Mundi"). This vision seems to be an idea, which the speaker then comments on, ending on a note as
the beast from the vision makes its way toward reality.( Appearance vs Reality). It foreshadows the
incoming catastrophic disaster coming later in the poem and it includes the theme of chaos and
control and morality and Christianity.

Therefore the poem highlights the political, cultural and spiritual matter where it shows unsual
imagery and it demonstrates how the poem is written on certain repeated words to emphasize the
repeating nature of things happening in it. Not only is the bird representing a cycle of civilization but
it is also a symbol for nature in its way, Humankind is losing touch with nature leading to bearing of
consequences. The first stanza is full of dramatic verbs: turning, widening, fall apart, loosed,
drowned, giving the impression of a system out of control.

The opening first three lines show Alliteration with repetition of the /t/ and /f/. It is focused on the
confusion happening because the falcon and the falconer have been separated, neither able to locate
the other, and the scattered /f/ sound shows that they have been separated from each other. Thus the
poem is described as humanity has lost its way and in return “rough beast” has came back in form of
humanity and the current state of the world, according to the speaker, proves that the "centre"—that
is, the foundation of society—was never very strong at all.

There are many literary poetic devices in the poem includes Metaphor, Consonance , Anaphora,
Assonance, Allusion and Enjambment. The reader have to prepare for the spiritual creature taken to
be “A shape with lion body and the head of a man” which now begins its nonstop journey towards the
historic town of Bethlehem.