The Second Coming (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Butler Yeats
- First Published: 1920
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Culture, Freedom, History, Suffering, Future, Religion, Social life, Violence, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Jesus Christ, Falconry
The Poem
“The Second Coming,” an intense, lyrical poem of twenty-two lines, addresses a listener prepared to expect useful insight into the meaning of history. Instead, the poet offers a disturbing prophecy of cultural dissolution. The homey, commonplace images of everyday life are merged with an apocalyptic revelation about a new order that portends instability and chaos among humankind. By the poem’s last line, the reader senses the impending arrival of something hideous and devastating to human freedom and harmony, an effect wrought by the poet’s skillful inversion...
[The entire page is 1477 words long]
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