The document provides analysis of William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming". It discusses how the poem was written after World War I, depicting Yeats' view of a catastrophic future society in the wake of the horrors of war. Through word choices that create a gloomy mood and symbols, Yeats predicts the downfall of society and a second world war brought about by mankind's wrongdoings, as referenced in the biblical allusion of the second coming in the poem's title.

1. KeatsВґ The Second Coming Essays
In a world full of hostility and loss of faith surrounded by war and technological developments, he
modernist era of literature developments, the modernists era of literature arose. The sinking of the
Titanic symbolized the falling of the Great Britain empire and newly invented standardized time
allowed war to become even deadlier than before due to the ability to organize attacks. Due to this
new world full of bloodshed and new mechanical inventions, the world was falling further and
further away from God. William Butler Years expresses his sudden collapse of society in his poem "
The Second Coming", first composed in January of 1919. The hopelessness of mankind is addressed
by Keats' statement that man cannot save us, God cannot save us,...show more content...
Society has strayed so far away from God that we cannot be guided back home.
Yeats begins the poem with the first two lines painting an image of society falling apart and
breaking down, one that O'Brien refers to as a "cultural breakdown."He says, "The falcon represents
those forces that function productively only when disciplined." In order to maintain structure and to
prevent the gyre from widening further, our society needs discipline, otherwise our structure, our
faith, or very nature as human beings deteriorates. At this time in our society, our discipline in our
faith is gone. Our discipline in our morals and ethics is gone.
Lines 3–6 illustrate society's inability to hold together without discipline. Because the falcon can no
longer hear the falconer to find its way back home, "things fall apart" – the result of society straying
from God. With everything falling apart, the need for someone or something to save society
becomes prominent. Since society has strayed away from God, the next solution is man as a
savior, but with the new age of war and machinery, mankind has lost their ability to save the world.
O'Brien says, "Everything that makes life valuable is being drenched in blood. 'The ceremony of
innocence' refers no to one particular ceremony but is intended to suggest the grace and order of
civilized society. Moreover, there is nobody to fight 'the blood–dimmed tide." Soldiers are
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2. Second Coming Tone
The second coming literary analysis essay
William Butler Yeats wrote "The Second Coming" after World War 1 ended, in a time when the
image of society was catastrophic. Yeats was deeply affected by these horrors caused by the war.
Yeats predicts this image of a catastrophic society due to war will reappear in the near future. In "The
Second Coming", William B. Yeats uses a variety of literary devices to portray his idea of what the
downfall of society will look like.
Throughout the poem, Yeats uses diction to illustrate a mood for the reader. Diction is the author's
word choice in their writing which can affect the mood of the piece. In nearly every line of the
poem, a word that creates a sorrowful and gloomy mood is apparent. For example, three words that
may stand out the most to readers are, blood–dimmed, drowned, and shadows. By using the word
"blood–dimmed" the author creates a scary connotation. Blood is often associated with death and in
this case war. Dimmed creates imagery for the reader and helps them to visualize a setting that is
vague. The reader cannot see things clearly however they can almost feel the chilling mood of their
surroundings. The placement of the word drowned next to Blood–dimmed can cause the reader to
interpret it in many different ways. One, for example, would...show more content...
In The Second Coming, by William Butler Yeats, Yeats explains the destruction of war caused by
man and his inability to hear god because his own ideas are clouding his judgement. The poem
describes Yeats's prediction of a second world war caused by the wrongdoings of man through the
biblical allusion of the second coming. Yeat's also uses diction and symbolism to emphasize a
gloomy and depressing setting. However, the destruction of man is not only caused by the actions of
humans, it is often caused by their lack of
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3. The Second Coming
The poem "The Second Coming" was written about the aftermath of World War One, which includes
the enforcement of the European culture of Christianity and Catholicism on other races of the world.
The message behind this poem if to the premise to the theme of the novel "Things Fall Apart." Many
of the lines that are indicated within the poem reflect the incidents of this novel, but mostly, the title
that's used is a line from the poem, it is equivalent to the outcome of the instilling of ideas of what
had happened to the Nigeria tribes.
The poem is based on the changes of the war, it also shows that it's impossible to stop any changes
from happening in the future. As for the novel when the white men settled in the tribes of Nigeria,
there wasn't any way to stop the changes of their presence from happening any further than it did.
The communities of Nigeria fell apart due to the invasion of the white men imposing their religion
...show more content...
This also reveals that his people lost their beliefs when the Europeans entered their environment that
corrupted their world. This changed their beliefs of the only world that they knew before the religion
of Christianity came about. Because of the European assimilating these people to their religion of
Christianity it broke the connection that the tribe had, and the village belief systems were slowly
broken.
However, with Okonkwo's devastating life experiences among his people and himself, it certainly
enforces the last line of Yeat's poem "slouches towards Bethlehem to be born." This reinforcement
of this specific religion brought much terror among the Nigerian tribes, but it mostly affected
Okonkwo's state of mind. The outcome of this led to Okonkwo to take his own life in madness of
his people converting to Catholicism and
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