The Second Coming

The key to this poem is in the symbols (and there are many many many).

The falcon and the falconer are symbols, as is the widening and widening gyre. The blood-dimmed tide is a symbol. The lion man is a symbol. The desert birds circling is a symbol. The Spiritus Mundi is a symbol.

Note: You need to know some allusions here: The Book of Revelations (you might read this quickly to get the depth of what Yeats is referring to; an explanation/interpretation of Revelations can be found here and the book itself can be found here); the lion-man is an allusion to the sphinx (not the sphinx in the desert but the mythological being that the sphinx in the desert is based on - you might note that the word Sphinx comes from a Greek word meaning strangle and and that the Greek Sphinx was a demon while the Egyptian Sphinx was a representation of the Sun God. Ah, is Yeats choosing an image that represents two things?) It might also be helpful to know a little about World War I and its aftermath. Also Bethlehem.

Note: Yeats believed that history ran through cycles (circular cycles - think of spinning wider and wider) and these cycles (happening every 2000 years or so) moved from ORDER to CHAOS and then CHAOS to ORDER.

Spiritus Mundi is just an idea that we all have a supernatural connection to one another and to the past (the collective unconscious). The idea that each of us and all our thoughts, emotions, and things that happen to all of humanity is stored somewhere and we can, during moments of heighten sensitivity, tap into it.

The poem is written in Blank Verse. Why? What does it reinforce?

The Suborbitals have a song that uses one of Yeats' lines - you can find the recording here. Listen to it and let me know your thoughts.