Monday, June 27, 2011

William Yeats: The Second Coming

The title of this poem can be defined as the return of Christ on Judgement day according to the footnotes.  There is lots of imagery in this poem.  In the beginning, "things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."  Every thing is pretty much in chaos.  The view of the "shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun," I believe is the view of heaven and hell on judgement day.  Also, the image of the lion is the image of a rough Jesus taking his followers home to him.  This was an interesting imagery of the second of coming of Jesus.
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1 comment:

  1. JonathanJuly 6, 2011 at 11:09 AM

    Marie,

    You are correct that Yeats provides a lot of interesting imagery of the second coming, but it is definitely not Jesus coming here—that sphinx-like monster represents the return of paganism, not Christ.

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