The Second

Coming
Study Guide by Course Hero

tense.
What's Inside
ABOUT THE TITLE
The title "The Second Coming" refers to the return of Jesus
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 Christ in the Last Judgment prophesied in the biblical Gospels
and Book of Revelations.
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 4 d In Context

c Plot Analysis ............................................................................................... 5

g Quotes ........................................................................................................... 8 Modernist Poetry

l Symbols ........................................................................................................ 9 "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats is an example of a
modernist poem. In broad terms, modernist poetry
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 10
demonstrates dissatisfaction with the aesthetic and cultural
b Narrative Voice ......................................................................................... 11 values of the past and strives to break away from them. In
Yeats's poem, this is reflected aesthetically in the use of
strange imagery that may surprise or even shock the reader.
Additionally, "The Second Coming" is built around concepts of
j Book Basics disillusionment with contemporary culture and society. World
War I (1914–18) was an important catalyst for the development
of modernist literature. The war destroyed societal norms and
AUTHOR
cultural values of the prewar era and opened a path for art that
W. B. Yeats
offered new ways of interpreting the world. Another hallmark
YEAR PUBLISHED of modernism at work in "The Second Coming" is that it
1920 requires interpretation from the reader to understand its
allusions and message. In this last regard, the poem is similar
GENRE to one of the foundational modernist poems, "The Love Song
Religion, War Literature of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) by Anglo American poet T.S. Eliot
(1888–1965).
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR
The perspective of "The Second Coming" is first person. Of course there is no one exact moment when modern poetry
However, the first-person pronouns my and I appear late in the began, but "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" did signal the
poem, in the second stanza. The unnamed speaker is someone beginning of a new era in English-language poetry. Modernist
with deep religious convictions who envisions the end of days. poetry was in many ways a rejection of Romantic poetry and
its values. Romantic poetry, part of the late-18th to mid-19th-
TENSE
century Romantic movement, celebrated nature and the
The poem "The Second Coming" is written in the present
The Second Coming Study Guide In Context 2

imagination. Modernists believed that the Industrial Revolution, number of nations involved, and the global geographic scope, it
which had transformed English society from agrarian to was unprecedented. Apart from the high death toll, World War I
industrial, had changed culture so profoundly that literature also introduced startling new military technologies that made
must change to remain relevant. Instead of celebrating the warfare deadlier and more brutal than ever. The war destroyed
beauty of nature, modernist poetry should underscore the older, romanticized ideas about warfare, with new weapons
challenges of living in an industrialized society. Instead of such as poison gas, landmines, and machine guns, changing
glorifying the human spirit, modernist poetry should train a military tactics and making older polite ideals obsolete. In
glaring spotlight on the damage industrialization was doing to addition to the incredible loss of life, the war redrew the map of
the Western psyche. Instead of providing steady rhymes and Europe following the disintegration of four major empires.
rhythmic meters, modernist poetry should reflect actual human Europeans (and the rest of the world) were forced to
speech patterns. American writer Ezra Pound (1885–1972), reevaluate the values of prior generations. The aftermath of
another founding modernist poet, insisted that a poem's the war saw political and social changes in many nations.
rhythm must "correspond exactly to the emotion or shade of These included the woman suffrage movement in the United
emotion to be expressed." "The Second Coming" uses an States that led to American women receiving the right to vote
irregular rhythm, constructing its lines in modulating lengths in 1920.
between 12 and 13 syllables, incorporating but ultimately
rejecting iambic pentameter (stressed syllable followed by an Yeats's writing of "The Second Coming" encompasses not only

unstressed syllable in a line of 10 syllables). In this way the World War I, but also the Easter Rising (1916) and the Russian

poem's use of meter reflects its content: showing the Revolution (1917). Early drafts explicitly mentioned such

corruption and dissolution of old values that the modernists historical events, but Yeats stripped all of these contextual

witnessed. clues from the poem, suggesting that he believed the imagery
and symbols could have multiple interpretations. One such
A key aspect of modernism was its emphasis on universal interpretation is that the poem is an apocalyptic religious vision
experience. When English Romantic poet William Wordsworth that can be read as an allegory for war. Yeats was horrified by
(1770–1850) wrote, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," he was the destruction and carnage wrought by modern warfare. In
talking about himself. In "The Second Coming" the "I" speaker 1915 Yeats wrote to an American friend that World War I was
is almost entirely undefined and without a specific personality. "the most expensive outbreak of insolence and stupidity" in
A line from another English Romantic poet, John Keats history and that he tried not to think about it. When asked by
(1795–1821)—"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"—would not have fit American author Henry James (1843–1916) to write a poem
into the modernist viewpoint either. The modern world in which about the war, he penned "On Being Asked for a War Poem"
Yeats lived was defined by bloody global warfare, massive (1915). The poem expressed his belief that poets had no place
outbreaks of disease (such as the influenza pandemic of speaking of the war because poets couldn't hope to influence
1918–19), and sweeping social and technological changes. the politicians who start and end wars. World War I also
coincided with the first battle of the Irish War of Independence:
When World War I broke out in 1914, issues of poetic the Easter Rising of 1916, an Irish rebellion that was brutally
terminology must suddenly have seemed less important. As suppressed by the British. During the Russian Revolution of
critic Martin Gilkes later wrote, "Modern poetry, as it happened, 1917, the imperial government was overthrown by the
chose a very awkward moment to be born ... No sooner had the Bolsheviks, a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers'
modern infant found its feet and uttered one loud intelligible Party led by the future prime minister of the Soviet Union,
cry than there came the War." Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924). These conflicts also deeply
troubled Yeats. Despite not writing much of substance about
warfare while it was ongoing, in 1919 Yeats may have
World at War expressed his horror at the violence and immorality of the
modern world in "The Second Coming."
Yeats wrote "The Second Coming" shortly after the conclusion
of the First World War. World War I (1914–1918)—also called "The Second Coming" describes the destruction of old values
the Great War—was at that time the largest armed conflict in and innocence: "the ceremony of innocence is drowned."
history. In terms of the high number of deaths (21 million), the "Mere anarchy [is] loosed upon the world" and a "rough beast"

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The Second Coming Study Guide Author Biography 3

brings about the end of days. By describing catastrophe in Coming" the poet's vision of a beast comes from this collective
terms of religious allegory, Yeats captures its horror indirectly. "storehouse." The notion of a collective world spirit is akin to
He imagines war and other calamities facing modern society as the common pagan belief that divinity is found in rather than
the birth of a terrible monster, the creature described in the beyond nature, and that people belong to the same universal
poem's later lines. plane as the divine. This imagery contrasts with the
mainstream Christian idea of God as a being separate from
and having dominion over the natural world. At the same time,
Christianity versus Paganism the creature Yeats envisions being birthed—a sphinxlike entity
with the body of a lion and the head of a man—does seem to
Yeats was born into a devoutly Christian society, but his represent an Antichrist. By describing the entity as "slouch[ing]
personal faith was more shaped by occultist beliefs and towards Bethlehem," Yeats perhaps suggests that this
reverence for traditional Celtic mythology. These values can be monstrous beast will symbolically destroy Christianity and
seen, for example, in his book on Celtic myths and folklore, The bring an end to the Christian epoch. In this reading, the end of
Celtic Twilight (1893), and his involvement in the Hermetic the Christian epoch will bring about a new epoch—one defined
Order of the Golden Dawn, an occult society that practiced by the creature that brings it into being. He describes "twenty
ritual magic. Both Yeats's Christian background and his centuries of stony sleep / ... vexed to nightmare by a rocking
enthusiasm for the occult are on display in "The Second cradle." In this context, the reference may be to a pagan world
Coming." made dormant by the advent of Christianity.

The poem's title references the Christian belief in the return of

Jesus Christ foretold in the New Testament's Gospels and in
its last book, Revelation. In Christian theology the Second
a Author Biography
Coming of Christ is the event said to precipitate the end of the
world. According to most Christian sects, the Second Coming
is the time when the resurrected Christ will reward the faithful Early Life
and punish the wicked and nonbelievers. In the poem the
speaker remarks on the terror and "anarchy" threatening the Born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865, William Butler Yeats
world and wonders whether it's the Second Coming. The poem was the eldest of the four children of Susan Mary Pollexfen
suggests that such terrible calamities can only mean the end of and aspiring law student John Butler Yeats. In 1867 John Yeats
the world. In addition to the Christian allusion in the title, Yeats left his studies to become a portrait artist, teaching his
also uses specific Christian imagery in the poem. The poem's children, including young William, to love the fine arts. After
final line references Bethlehem, the Palestinian city that was finishing high school, William Yeats enrolled at the Metropolitan
the birthplace of Jesus Christ. However, this reference School of Art in Dublin, hoping to become a painter. To support
subverts the Christian tradition, replacing the Son of Man himself at school, Yeats became a newspaper correspondent.
referenced in the Bible with a horrible monster similar to the When his first poems were published in the Dublin University
beasts described in Revelation. Review in 1885, Yeats left his studies altogether.

Yeats does not limit the "Second Coming" depicted in the

poem to the traditional Christian idea of the resurrection.
Instead, the poem suggests a return to the pagan spirituality
Early Career and Romance
he espoused, a subversion of the Christian end of days. Yeats
After leaving school in the late 1880s, Yeats moved to London,
references the Spiritus Mundi in line 12, literally the "world
where he began spending more time with his father's friends.
spirit," which Yeats sometimes also called the Spiritus Anima,
These friends included the English poet and artist William
or "world soul." Yeats defined this idea as "a general
Morris (1834–96) and the Irish writers George Bernard Shaw
storehouse of images which have ceased to be a property of
(1856–1950) and Oscar Wilde (1854–1900). Yeats also
any personality or spirit." For Yeats, this "storehouse" is a
cofounded a dining and poetry club, the Rhymers' Club, in
repository of universal memory shared by all people, and it is
London with Welsh-English writer Ernest Rhys (1859–1946).
the source from which poets draw inspiration—in "The Second

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The Second Coming Study Guide Plot Summary 4

Through Yeats's literary circle, he met and fell in love with Irish This apocalyptic vision was likely influenced by events such as
actress Maud Gonne (1866–1953), an ardent Irish nationalist. Ireland's struggle for independence, the Russian Revolution
Yeats pursued Gonne relentlessly, proposing marriage many (1917), and World War I (1914–18).
times, which she always refused. Instead, Gonne married a
fellow revolutionary, Major John MacBride (c. 1865–1916).
Yeats continued to write plays in which Gonne would star, and Death and Legacy
he even dedicated his 1892 play, The Countess Cathleen, to
her. Gonne's marriage was stormy and violent, which broke After Ireland gained independence from England, Yeats was
Yeats's heart. In his poem "Easter 1916," he immortalizes Major appointed senator of the Irish Free State in 1922, which further
MacBride as a "drunken, vainglorious lout" who has "done most cemented his position as a cultural leader. He won the Nobel
bitter wrong / To some who are near my heart." Prize in Literature in 1923, which Yeats characterized as a
recognition of Irish culture. Yeats continued to write politically
influenced poetry until his death on January 28, 1939, at age
Inspiration 73.

Many sources inspired Yeats's writings, most notably the Yeats was heralded as the national poet of Ireland and has

supernatural, mythology, and Irish history. In 1890 Yeats also been called one of the greatest English-speaking poets of

became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the 20th century. Critic James Longenbach credited Yeats

an organization focused on the study and practice of with inventing the modern lyric poem, which incorporates

mysticism and the occult. In 1917 Yeats married English heiress robust rhythms with rich historical and mythological symbols.

Georgie Hyde-Lees (1892–1968), who was also a member of Anglo American poet T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) said of Yeats,

the Golden Dawn. They practiced automatic writing together, "[H]e was one of those few whose history is the history of their

in which Hyde-Lees wrote down words and messages received own time, who are a part of the consciousness of an age which

from spirits from a supernatural realm. Yeats later gathered cannot be understood without them."

these automatic writings in his book A Vision (1925). The ideas

and symbols generated by these episodes of automatic writing
had a profound effect on Yeats's work after 1917, particularly k Plot Summary
on his sense of history as a recurring cycle of events.

Yeats was deeply enmeshed in the Irish nationalist movement,

partly as a consequence of his complex relationship with Irish Structure
patriot Maud Gonne (1866–1953). He was a founder of the Irish
National Theatre Society, which soon opened the Abbey "The Second Coming" is structured in two stanzas of unequal
Theatre in Dublin to promote native Irish drama. Yeats quickly length. The first stanza is made up of 8 lines and the second of
became closely identified with Ireland, as the majority of his 14 lines. Most of the lines are between 9 and 11 syllables long,
works featured Irish characters and landscapes or were based so the poem approximates iambic pentameter. (The term
on traditional Irish songs and tales. He wrote many nationalistic iambic pentameter refers to a poetic structure in which each
plays during his tenure at the Irish National Theatre Society, line consists of five two-syllable feet with the stress on the
including Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), cowritten with Irish second syllable.) Thus, "The Second Coming" has no set
writer Lady Gregory Augusta (1852–1932), which featured rhythmic pattern. There also is no rhyme scheme, so the poem
Gonne as a personification of Ireland itself. Despite his is an example of free verse.
nationalism, he was not overtly political, though this changed
after the Easter Uprising of 1916 (a rebellion against British
government in Ireland). Stanza 1 (Lines 1–8)
Yeats's poem "The Second Coming" was written in 1919 and The poem begins with the unnamed speaker's description of a
published in 1920. The poem reflects his belief in the cyclical "widening gyre"—a gyre is a spiral or circle—that is turning. A
nature of history, foreseeing the catastrophic end of an era.

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The Second Coming Study Guide Plot Analysis 5

falcon is caught inside the turbulence of the gyre and can't metrical pattern and no rhyme scheme, qualifying it as "free
escape. The falcon is "unable to hear the falconer." The verse" poetry. However, the lines are of a fairly uniform length,
speaker goes on to say that "things fall apart" and "the centre most of them varying between 9 and 11 syllables in length,
cannot hold," indicating a rapidly deteriorating situation. The approximating the line lengths in traditional iambic pentameter,
speaker then states that "mere anarchy" has been "loosed which features 10-syllable lines. Furthermore, within the lines
upon the world." The apocalyptic tone continues as he alludes many of the syllables are iambs—bisyllabic feet, each
to terrible violence and loss of life across the world, destroying comprising an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
innocence ("the ceremony of innocence is drowned"). The syllable. This lends the poem the feel of iambic pentameter.
speaker then remarks on the quality of people, saying "the The reason Yeats chose to do this may have been to allow
best" of people lack the conviction to make things better. At form to mirror content. In a poem about corruption and the
the same time, evil people are energized and active, "full of collapse of society and society's rules, a subversion of the
passionate intensity." traditional metrical pattern makes perfect sense.

Free verse is simply defined as poetry without any set meter or

Stanza 2 (Lines 9–17) rhyme. The first experiments in free verse began with
American poet Walt Whitman (1819–92). Free verse as a
distinct movement originated in 1880s France with the so-
The speaker, grasping for meaning in this strange vision,
called Vers Libre (literally "free verse") movement. From France
remarks that "surely some revelation is at hand." He then
the concept of free verse spread into English poetry around
surmises "the Second Coming" (of Jesus Christ) is "surely"
the start of the 20th century. In the early 20th century, with the
imminent. However, the speaker's impression swiftly changes
advent of modernism, free verse rapidly gained prominence
when a troubling new vision emerges. From the desert a
over more traditional metrical forms. Today, free verse is the
gigantic creature rises from the sand: "a shape with lion body
default, making it easy to forget that in 1919 free verse poetry
and the head of a man." The creature's expression is "pitiless
was still a relatively recent innovation.
as the sun" as it moves slowly across the desert. Around it
whirl the shadows of desert birds disturbed by its passage. Yeats preferred poetry to have distinct rhythms, and as a
result much of his poetry was written with meter. However, he
chose poetic forms to fit each poem's content. His choice of
Stanza 2 (Lines 18–22) free verse for "The Second Coming" underlines the poem's
meaning. As mentioned above, the poem's irregular line lengths
The speaker's vision ends as "[t]he darkness drops again." Yet, fit the poem's narrative of a world gone wrong.
the speaker has gained enough understanding to interpret his
vision's meaning. He realizes that the creature has been
sleeping for 2,000 years and is now awake, enraged and ready Similes and Metaphors
to cause destruction. "What rough beast," the speaker asks,
"[s]louches towards Bethlehem to be born?" On several occasions in "The Second Coming," Yeats makes
use of figurative language, including similes and metaphors. His
use of figurative language in the poem is more thematic than
c Plot Analysis imagistic. That is, he uses them more to advance theme than
merely to describe or compare. Similes and metaphors are
similar devices but can be clearly distinguished from one
another by their construction. A simile is a comparative device
Free Verse versus Metrical in which two dissimilar things are compared with the use of the
word like or as. An example of a simile in "The Second Coming"
Poetry appears in line 15. The speaker describes the creature arising
from the desert, saying its gaze is "blank and pitiless as the
The poem straddles the line between traditional poetry and
sun." This comparison works on multiple levels, ascribing not
free verse poetry. "The Second Coming" features no set
only the qualities "blank" and "pitiless" but also bestowing other

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The Second Coming Study Guide Plot Analysis 6

qualities associated with the sun, such as immensity and be born"). The heavy use of alliteration in the poem
intensity. accomplishes two purposes for Yeats. Apart from the
aforementioned musical quality, the heavy repetition of sounds
Metaphors are distinguished from similes in that they don't use also creates a trancelike effect, suggestive of the vision the
the word like or as to signal comparison. Metaphors are broken poem purports to be.
up into two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the
concept being compared, while the vehicle is the thing that But the most consistently used sound device in the poem is
bears the weight of the comparison. Sometimes, as is the case consonance. Consonance is similar to alliteration (and
with metaphors in "The Second Coming," the tenor isn't spelled alliteration is a kind of consonance) in that it involves the
out. In the example "the falcon cannot hear the falconer" (line repetition of consonant sounds. However, the repetition can
2), the tenor is "mankind" or "humanity" for the falcon and come in any part of the words, not just their beginning. The
"spirituality" for the falconer. Yeats uses the metaphor of a most striking example of consonance in "The Second Coming"
falcon lost and unable to hear its master's commands to appears in line 1—"turning and turning in a widening
represent humanity cut off from its traditional spirituality. gyre"—where the /t/, /r/, /n/, and /ng/ sounds are all repeated
Alternatively, the falcon and falconer can be read as in rapid succession. They form a swirl of sound that heightens
representative of human logic and its breakdown. When the the concept of a swirling gyre, or vortex. Another notable
falcon cannot hear the falconer, human logic fails. The second example of consonance in the poem occurs in line 5: "blood-
metaphor Yeats employs comes late in the poem, in line 20. dimmed tide is loosed." In this instance the repetition of the
Yeats writes of a "rocking cradle." The rocking cradle is a heavy /d/ sound creates a thumping cadence, not unlike the
metaphor for the birth/advent of Jesus Christ. pounding of war drums.

Near Rhymes, Alliteration, and References to "The Second

Consonance Coming" in Other Works
Although "The Second Coming" doesn't feature a regular "The Second Coming" is arguably Yeats's most famous work of
rhyme scheme, Yeats made use of near rhymes and the sound poetry, and as a result it has been widely referenced in
devices alliteration and consonance to lend musical sounds to literature and popular culture. A 2015 essay published in the
the poem. A near rhyme (alternatively referred to as a "slant Paris Review entitled "No Slouch" went so far as to say that the
rhyme") is any instance in which words in close proximity poem "may well be the most thoroughly pillaged piece of
sound similar but don't precisely rhyme. An example of near literature in English." The same essay highlights how news
rhyme in the poem comes in lines 3 and 4: "hold" and "world" media and journalists frequently use (and misuse) the poem's
don't rhyme perfectly but share two similar sounds, the "o" and language to describe current events in international affairs.
"ld" sounds. Another example is the repetition of the words "is One example given is "Europe is slouching toward war."
at hand" in lines 9 and 10. Strictly speaking, the same word
can't be rhymed with itself, thus it is a near rhyme. These near The most prominent of the literary references to the poem is

rhymes suggest discordance and disorder, as in "things Nigerian author Chinua Achebe's (1930–2013) novel Things Fall

fall[ing] apart." Apart (1958), whose title is a direct quotation from line 3 of
"The Second Coming." American author Joan Didion (1934–)
Yeats makes heavy use of the sound device alliteration also referenced "The Second Coming" with the title essay of
throughout the poem. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant her 1968 collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. American
sounds at the beginnings of words in proximity to one another. filmmaker and writer Woody Allen (1935–) entitled his 2007
The first example of alliteration in "The Second Coming" is in essay collection Mere Anarchy, referencing the line "mere
line 1: "turning and turning." In line 2, Yeats writes, "the falcon anarchy is loosed upon the world." Meanwhile, pop culture
cannot hear the falconer." Later examples of alliteration crop references to the poem vary widely, ranging from Batman
up in lines 13 ("my sight, somewhere in the sands"), 18 comic books to musical references by bands such as U2.
("darkness drops"), 19 ("stony sleep"), and 22 ("Bethlehem to

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The Second Coming Study Guide Plot Analysis 7

— Narrator
g Quotes
With this line, the speaker describes the chaos war brings.
Here, the word mere doesn't refer to "slight" but rather to the
"Turning and turning in a widening
word's older definition—"total." Thus, the line actually reads
gyre." "total anarchy is loosed upon the world."

— Narrator
"The best lack all conviction, while
The "widening gyre" the speaker references is time itself, or the worst / Are full of passionate
more specifically a section of time that's now changing over,
being replaced by a different gyre. This line can also be read
intensity."
as describing a whirlwind.
— Narrator

"The falcon cannot hear the The speaker bemoans how good people have been rendered
powerless and indecisive, while bad people have taken control
falconer."
and are dictating events.

— Narrator

"Surely the Second Coming is at

Taken literally, this line describes a lost bird unable to hear its
master's commands because it is caught in a powerful vortex
hand."
of wind. The image is a powerful metaphor. The falcon
represents humanity, which is lost in the changing tides of time. — Narrator
The falconer represents humanity's spiritual compass, or
alternatively the disconnect between the falcon and falconer
Here, the speaker theorizes the chaos can only mean the
may represent the failure of human logic and wisdom.
Second Coming of Christ foretold in the Christian Bible—and
thus the end of days—is approaching.

"Things fall apart; the center

cannot hold." "A vast image out of the Spiritus
Mundi / Troubles my sight."
— Narrator

— Narrator
History is falling apart, and the balance between the two
interchanging gyres has become fragile. Alternatively, this line
The Spiritus Mundi is a pagan religious concept. The phrase is
can be read more conventionally to simply describe the
Latin for "world spirit" and, like the similar phrase Anima Mundi,
breakdown of societal order.
describes the concept of Earth being alive and divine. While
Spiritus Mundi can also describe the attitudes of a particular
time period, for Yeats, the phrase referred to a "storehouse" of
"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the human memory that belongs to no one person. When Yeats
says the image arises from the Spiritus Mundi, he means that it
world."
comes from this collective human memory.

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The Second Coming Study Guide Quotes 8

"The darkness drops again; but The Falcon

now I know."

— Narrator The falcon described in "The Second Coming" is symbolic of

the human race, specifically in modern times, as it has become
disconnected from its roots. When Yeats writes, "[t]he falcon
With this line the speaker reveals he was experiencing some
can't hear the falconer," he means that humanity has lost touch
kind of vision or dream, and now it is over. However, while the
with its original values. This corruption is what leads to terrible
vision may have ended, the speaker has come to an
hardships like World War I. The falcon being unable to hear the
understanding.
falconer could also represent what Yeats perceived as a
collective loss of religious faith across the world. Thus, people
(the falcon) are disconnected from their spirituality (the guiding
"Twenty centuries of stony sleep / falconer). There are alternative interpretations as well

Were vexed to nightmare by a regarding what the falcon symbolizes. The falcon could also
represent logic, and thus the falcon losing contact with the
rocking cradle." falconer suggests humanity abandoning logic.

— Narrator

The Gyre
After seeing the vision, the speaker understands its meaning.
The monster he saw rising from the desert has been sleeping
for two thousand years, tormented by Christianity—the
"rocking cradle," which symbolizes the birth of Jesus. The "gyre" Yeats writes of in "The Second Coming" can be
understood literally as a vortex of air so powerful that it
consumes whatever is lost inside it. It should also be
understood figuratively as a representation of Yeats's concept
"What rough beast ... / Slouches
of time. Yeats believed time to be cyclical, broken up into
towards Bethlehem to be born?" epochs. The end of one epoch brings about a new epoch, and
over time epochs repeat.

— Narrator

The word slouch doesn't describe weakness or laziness; The Sphinx

rather, it describes the slow, deliberate, and thunderous way
the monster moves. By moving "towards Bethlehem to be
born," the monster is going to the birthplace of Christianity to
The sphinxlike creature described in the poem symbolizes both
put an end to the Christian world.
destruction and rebirth. It also symbolizes the pagan world that
predated the Christian era. This is typified by the ancient
Egyptians, who built the actual Sphinx. The Sphinx rises up to

l Symbols "slouch" toward Bethlehem. There, it will presumably destroy

the birthplace of Christianity and in so doing end the Christian
epoch and the values that define that epoch. This end will also
be the beginning, however, of an era defined not by Christ but
by the Sphinx. Depending on interpretation, this could be
positive or negative, as it would destroy everything modern

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The Second Coming Study Guide Symbols 9

humanity believes and values, but it might also purge conviction," Yeats writes, "while the worst / Are full of
humanity's corruption. Alternatively, the sphinx can be passionate intensity." Those who still follow old spiritual
interpreted as symbolic of World War I, which Yeats believed worldviews "lack conviction" and are unable to act upon their
destroyed the old order of the world. values, while those who have abandoned old mores are taking
power.

The end of spirituality (or at least of the Christian spirituality

m Themes Yeats was familiar with) is signaled in the poem by the rise of
the monster. This "rough beast" is modeled after the Sphinx of
Egypt. Once humanity (the falcon) has lost contact with its
spirituality (the falconer), the beast arises to destroy the world
Humanity and Its Loss of and make a new one in its place.

Spirituality
Evil Flourishes in Times of
Perhaps the most important theme in "The Second Coming" is
explored in the poem's second line: "The falcon cannot hear
Crisis
the falconer." On its surface this line merely refers to the
physical impossibility of a bird lost in a "widening gyre" hearing
the instructions of its falconer. Yet, the line really signifies how Yeats perhaps wrote "The Second Coming" as an allegory for
time and change have disconnected humanity from traditional modern warfare. World War I (1914–18) had been a conflict of
spirituality. The falcon represents modern humanity, while the unprecedented bloodshed and scope that radically altered the
falconer represents the spiritual compass that in Yeats's mind world map and also altered Western thinking. Other conflicts
used to guide humanity. Indeed, the early 20th century, when around the same time, as well as concurrent disasters such as
Yeats wrote the poem, was a time of unprecedented and rapid the global influenza outbreak that killed millions, would have
secularization of European society. While at least one recent influenced Yeats. A key theme of "The Second Coming," then,
study published by Scientific Advances argues that this is the way Yeats perceives war and disaster as bringing out the
secularization preceded and perhaps caused rapid economic worst in humanity, empowering the wicked and bloodthirsty
development, at the time traditionalists would have seen the and disempowering good people.
trend negatively. Yeats, however, would have had a more
In "The Second Coming," Yeats describes a moral dichotomy
ambivalent reaction to secularization.
between good people ("the best") and bad people ("the worst").
Although born into a Protestant Christian family, Yeats never The former, he writes, "lack all conviction," and the latter are
formally adopted or personally held Christian beliefs. Instead, "full of passionate intensity." Sensitive poets and gentle people
he sought a belief system founded on empirical values, which would have been swept aside by a conflict such as World War
concern evidence and experimentation. This quest for I, while the more violent and ambitious would rise to
experience-based spiritualism led Yeats to partake in occult prominence. However, it should also be noted that Yeats's
activities like the demonic ritual he describes in the chapter sense of causality in the poem goes both ways. While the
"The Sorcerers" from The Celtic Twilight (1893). His interest in people described in the first stanza are made more destructive
traditional Celtic folklore would lead him to explore folkloric by events in the world, they are also the cause of them in the
and occult themes in much of his writing, including "The first place. The emergence of the monster in the poem's
Second Coming." In "The Second Coming" Yeats presents a second stanza is preceded by humanity's corruption in the first.
subversion of the traditional Christian concept of the Second Yeats seems to suggest, then, that humanity's wickedness will
Coming of Christ, depicting instead the return of older, pagan bring about the world's end. In describing the monster that
values. This change is brought about by the movement of time rises from the desert, Yeats writes that "its hour [has] come at
itself but also by the weakness of humanity. "The best lack all last" after "twenty centuries of stony sleep." The monster then

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The Second Coming Study Guide Themes 10

arises from slumber, awoken by the terrible, bloody chaos of

the Great War and other calamities. It is not the monster who b Narrative Voice
destroys human society, but rather human society that
destroys itself, allowing the monster to be born. "The Second Coming" is written in the first person, but this
perspective isn't made clear until line 13 in the second stanza.
Until that point, the poem is narrated in an impersonal way, the
speaker bearing witness to a strange vision. The speaker in
Time Is Cyclical "The Second Coming" is never identified or given much in the
way of personal development. From his (the speaker's gender
is also never identified, but Yeats likely intended a male
Central to understanding the poem's meaning is Yeats's speaker) reactions to his visions, however, certain traits can be
concept of cyclical time represented by his vision of determined. The speaker is clearly religious or at least
overlapping "gyres." These gyres could be physically described spiritually inclined, as he sees horrible atrocities and surmises
as interpenetrating cones. The gyre is mentioned in "The they can only signify the Second Coming of Christ.
Second Coming" in the poem's first line, where Yeats
Through most of the poem, the speaker manages to maintain a
describes the metaphorical falcon (humanity) becoming lost in
calm and eloquent voice, though at certain moments he
a widening gyre. The falcon is lost and unable "to hear the
becomes more agitated and exclamatory. An example appears
falconer" because of the interchange between gyres. Time and
in line 11: "The Second Coming!" From his syntax and word
history are changing, and everything the falcon understands is
choice, the speaker is a well-educated person who is well
being altered.
versed in religious symbolism and history. Nevertheless, he
Yeats's personal model of history can be boiled down to a few fails—or chooses not—to directly draw the connection between
core concepts. First, history is necessarily cyclical. Events and the "rough beast" he sees awakening and the Great Sphinx of
epochs repeat themselves over the course of time. Second, Giza it resembles. Notably, in line 18 the speaker reveals that
these repeating gyres, or epochs, each last roughly 2,000 the poem up to this point has been a vision or trance, possibly
years—the "twenty centuries of stony sleep" mentioned in the a dream. However, rather than dismissing what he's witnessed,
poem. Third, as one gyre degrades and gives way to the next, the speaker affirms the vision was meaningful, interpreting it as
the endings of each epoch are cataclysmic. As such, the ideal an omen of what is to come.
time to live would be at the midpoint of an epoch, for example,
It's also worth noting that while the poem may have been
1000 CE. Finally, although one gyre/epoch supersedes
written partly in response to World War I, the Easter Rising,
another, the earlier one still exists—subdued but exerting its
and the Russian Revolution, the speaker never references
own quiet power. Thus, although Yeats believed he lived in the
these conflicts directly. He indirectly alludes to possible
Christian epoch, he also recognized elements of the preceding
warfare with descriptions of large-scale violence and chaos.
pagan epoch still existed.
This strategy perhaps makes the poem an allegory, using a
The "rough beast" Yeats describes "slouch[ing] towards parallel narrative—"The Second Coming" of a terrible
Bethlehem" is moving to destroy the "rocking cradle" of monster—to represent violent modern conflict.
Christianity. This would end the Christian epoch and bring
Overall, the ideal adjectives to describe the narrative voice of
about a new one, likely more similar to the preceding pagan
the speaker in "The Second Coming" would be eloquent,
epoch. In presenting this scenario, Yeats is subverting the
visionary, apocalyptic, mystical, and confused.
traditional Christian, biblical view of history. The biblical view of
history is more linear and has a definite ending: the victory of
Christ over evil and the effective, permanent end of the world.
Yeats's more pagan attitude toward history, however, would
argue that Christianity has had its time. Now the pagan beast
rises again, "its hour come around at last."

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