The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats... A better world...

Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" is one of his most famous poems; it is also for me one of most challenging one to fully grasp. However, I wanted to comment on it because of the beautiful imagery he used throughout the piece.The first stanza begins with the image of a falcon flying in circle in the sky, far away from the falconer who released it: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer" (1-2) The first paragraph talks about the bird that continues to "wheel" and "gyre" further and further away from the falconer. This metaphor could stand for the young people who have decided to go "away" from their parents and gain some independence. It is also a metaphor for a new beginning as far as art, litterature or music is concerned. Yeats believed he was in a time of transition.The poem was composed in 1920 (second paragraph on p.1115) The last two lines of the first stanza are just a comment on people's behavior during this time period. Yeats says "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." (7-8) This also suggests a comparison between the best, whom Yeats identifies as head people, the intellectuals that are not necessarily making the right decision for the citizens by "lack of conviction," and the worst, whom Yeats associates with the mob who are those who tend to react with more passion rather than careful intellectual study and expression. In the two stanzas of the poem, two different kind of birsd are used as a metaphor. In the first stanza of the poem, Yeats gives us the first one: "the falcon." In the second part of the poem Yeats gives us the second bird metaphor in the form of "indignant desert birds." (17) There is a massive beast, described as a Sphinx who began to move its "slow thighs." (16) the birds became agitated and took off. The birds are flying around above the slowly moving Sphinx. At the start of the second stanza Yeats calls for a a big event to happen, saying "Surely some revelation is at hand." (9) Yeats is the revelator because he gives us a powerful vision of The Second Coming. This is the image of a "rough beast" (21) which has the intelligence of a man and the fierce emotions and body type of a lion. Furthermore, Yeats suggests that the body movement of the beast, the "slouching" (22) movement is what is moving the Christ closer and closer to "Bethlehem." (22). For Keats, Bethlehem is the symbol of a new age; the vision of the rising sphinx is his vision of the character of the new world. This illustrates Yeats as a modern prophet. It is of major importance that Yeats describes the Sphinx as "A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun," (15) because spiritual leaders are known to "gaze blankly" as they transmit "the Godly message" to their disciples. The "Second Coming" (10) is implying that Yeats is talking about Christ maing an appearance on Earth to give a lesson to men. After Yeats presents this brilliant visionary image, he says "The darkness drops again." (18) His "perfect" vision ends and he starts wondering again, by asking a question. I found that poem to be kind of a riddle for his readers. Throughout the poem, there are hints as to what the answer to the riddle could be. However, Yeats does not want to give away his full thought and makes his reader wonder. First Yeats presents the broken image of the falcon dissociating from its master. Then Yeats presents the broken image of many birds flying around the Sphinx. But the Sphinx itself is a single whole image. The Sphinx which could be described as a "big cat" for "reality example" purposes who would be able to eat the birds. The Sphinx is therefore thought of as mightier than the birds. The idea of being mighty is amplified by the very size of the Sphinx. However the image shown in the poem conflicts with the conventional Christian idea that Jesus Christ overcomes the "Beast of Revelation" as indicated by the scriptures. So Yeats is challenging certain images in conventional Christianity showing an advancement in people's mind at that time regarding every aspects of life, material as well as spiritual.