William Butler Yeats Group

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asmahan
asmahan
Student

Who are the speakers in the stnzas 6 , 7 , 8, 9 , of "Second Coming"?

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Posted by asmahan on Saturday January 10, 2009 at 1:48 PM and tagged with poetry, speaker, william butler yeats.

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  1. akannan Teacher
    Middle School

    eNotes Editor

    The speaker in the poem "The Second Coming" can truly wind up to be anyone who is desperately seeking a vision of unity, good, and truth to envelop the world after the First World War.  There seems to be an almost pleading tone that implores the heavens themselves for the reestablishment of a moral order or structure to the world, as "the falcon cannot hear the falconer."  If we examine the first stanza, of which lines 6-9, are included, we can see that the speaker is almost surveying the ruins or the scarred battlefield of Europe after the First World War.  In this wreckage of a world, the speaker describes the state of affairs that are within it.  Order is gone, the "gyre" or vortex of fragmentation is widening, there is no innocence, and in the absence of real leadership, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity."  We get the impression from these lines that the speaker is one who is struggling to find meaning in a world that is devoid of it.

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    Posted by akannan on Friday July 17, 2009 at 8:31 AM