The Second Coming Analysis

1. welcome!

3. How to Play?
• Read the group of unrelated words
• Transform them into real phrases before
time runs out.
Example:
SAD HEARD DAY
becomes
SATURDAY

4. BEE BLINK CAL MET A POOR

5. BIBLICAL METAPHOR

6. EASE PINKS IN CREEK
ME TOO LOW CHIE

7. SPHINX IN GREEK
MYTHOLOGY

8. CHEESE US FRIES

9. JESUS CHRIST

10. APE POO CALL LEAFS

11. APOCALYPSE

12. DUH CHECK OWNED CALMING

13. THE SECOND COMING

14. The Second
Coming
William Butler Yeats

15. Author
01
Who is William Butler Yeats?
The Concepts of the Poem
02
Concepts, Themes, and
Techniques
The Second Coming
03
Line by Line Analysis
Takeaways
04
What have you learned?
Table of Contents

16. Author
01.
Who is William Butler Yeats?

17. William Butler Yeats
Born in Dublin, Ireland is one of the
foremost figures of 20th Century literature.
In December 1923, Yeats was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature, “for his
inspired poetry , which gives expression
to the spirit of a whole nation.” Very
nationalistic and involved with the Celtic
Revival-a movement against the cultural
influences of English rule in Ireland
during the Victorian period–he sought to
promote the spirit of Ireland’s native
heritage and was considered the
standard-bearer of Irish nationalism and
Irish cultural independence.

18. William Butler Yeats
His life-long interest in
mysticism and the occult was
shown in his works and his
uninhibited stance in
advancing his idiosyncratic
philosophy, and these may be
gleaned from his “The
Second Coming” which was
written in 1919 in the
aftermath of the first World
War.

19. The Concepts of the Poem
02.
Concepts, Themes,Techniques

20. What are the Concepts of the poem?
• The Sphinx of Greek Mythology
• The Second Coming of Christ
• Philosophy of A Vision

21. Themes
• Despair about Modernism
• Order vs Chaos

22. Techniques Used:
• The poem is divided into two
stanzas and with the odd rhyme,
but far more resembling free-verse
Modern voice than the other
poems.
• Interestingly, to describe this scene
of chaos he uses first person as
though he is an eyewitness.

23. Techniques Used:
• Apocalyptic imagery e.g. “The
blood-red tide is dimmed” and the
Metaphor “The ceremony of
innocence is drowned” are biblical
allusions to Noah’s flood which
drowned the wicked. The diction
“revelation” and “Second Coming”
is also biblical.

24. Techniques Used:
• Imagery of broken or collapsing
gyres also alludes to Yeats’ own
book A Vision and his idea that the
modern age is uncivilized and
chaotic e.g. “The falcon cannot
hear the falconer; Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold.”

25. Techniques Used:
• Yeats contrasts the civilized past
and the Christian age, with the
biblical story of the Second Coming
of Christ, which represents the
modern age.

26. The Second Coming
03.
Line by Line Analysis

28. Lines 1-4
(1) Turning and turning in the widening gyre
(2) The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
(3) Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
(4) Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
● (1) The universe is comprised of
interlocking circles or gyres
● (2) Portrays the society as having navigated
away from its common principle.
● (3) Civilization is disintegrating.
● (4) Absolute chaos is unleashed leading
to the collapse of society.

29. Lines 5-8
(5) The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
(6) The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
(7) The best lack all conviction, while the worst
(8) Are full of passionate intensity.
● (5-6) Biblical metaphor & Apocalyptic Imagery
● (7-8) The good people don’t do anything, while the
bad people hungers for terror, violence, and
brutality.

30. Lines 9-12
(9) Surely some revelation is at hand;
(10) Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
(11) The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
(12) When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
● (9-10) Christ returning to Earth
● (11-12) Apocalypse on its way & Spirit of the World

31. Lines 13-16
(13) Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the
desert
(14) A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
(15) A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
(16) Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
● (13-14) Sphinx and its riddle (three ages of man)
● (15) Values of the Sphinx and inevitable events
● (16) Imagery of Sphinx’s movements

32. Lines 17-22
(17) Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
(18) The darkness drops again; but now I know,
(19) That twenty centuries of stony sleep
(20) Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
(21) And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
(22) Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
● (17) Vultures and its symbolism
● (18) Alliteration of the letter “d” = death/doomsday
● (19-20) Someone in a dormant state will wake up in the
year 2000s that’s been awaken by the negative
human activities done to each other.
● (21) Maybe an Antichrist? It’s been hibernating for a very
long time
● (22) An evil entity finally awaken and will deceive humanity in the
second coming of Christ (False Messiah)

33. Takeaways
04.
What are your insights about the poem?

34. Takeaways
What are your
insights about the
poem?

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