"The Second Coming" by Yeats presents a second coming of a
different kind; different from the second coming Christian tradition
presents.
The poem presents social upheaval and nightmarish
violence. The falcon cannot hear the falcon, and thus cannot be controlled: chaos
results. Those who could do something about the discord "lack conviction," while the
worst are filled with "passionate intensity." An ambiguous, sphinx-like creature with a
"gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,/Is moving its slow thighs" toward Bethlehem
(metaphorically) to be born. The "rough beast" is coming. Nightmarish violence is
coming: not the second coming of Christ that tradition
expects.
Human history is about to take a turn for the
worse.
Yeats is responding to upheaval and violence in the
world, and particularly in the Russian revolution. The 20th century is on the verge of
something terrible, the poem suggests. And of course, Yeats was correct. Human beings
were never so good at killing other human beings as they were in the
20th-century.
No comments:
Post a Comment