Please Help! I need to interpert The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats. I need some ideas of how it relates to today (2004)

Anyone?

Stef, let's take a look at the poem:

The Second Coming
by William Butler Yeats

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of i{Spiritus Mundi}
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Steph, even though this was written 100 years ago the title makes obvious the point that Yeats is referring to the holy land and the second coming of Christ. Take all the references that you can from the poem and try to relate them to what you know about the current political history of the Middle East.

If you're not aware of politics abroad, here are some facts to keep in mind:

a. the holy land is the home country of 3 great religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam

b. there is great turmoil in the area due to conflicts between these religious groups

c. outside influences (such as the U.S.) have been involved in the current situation in countries near the holy land

d. biblical scholars (and others) have been predicting a war to end all wars which originates in the holy land.

I hope these facts about the current situation will help with your study. As for the exact biblical references, such as the animal that creeps toward Bethlehem ask your preacher, or someone you know to explain the reference.

Les

There's no correct single answer about how this poem relates to 2004. If you put aside what Yeats himself intended the images in the poem to symbolize when he wrote it so long ago, and just focus on the words - provided you understand their dictionary meanings, and that 'centre' is used in the military sense of the centre of an old fashioned army engaged in a land battle, and that Bethlehem refers to the biblically declared birthplace of Jesus and thus of the Christian era, you can put your own symbolic interpretation on the images according to whatever deterioration in the old order of things you are really worried about. Especially changes happening through decay or collapse or violence. For example, some people may be most concerned about official corruption and a breakdown of law and order; others about terrorist threats. You only need to have some impressions, through newspapers, radio or TV, of what is happening. Each reader can bring his or her own ideas to the poem. They can be correct though different.

So what 2004-related ideas do you bring to it, for starters?



Post Edited (06-16-04 19:26)

Well, actually, Yeats did not mean the second coming of Christ, but of Christ's opposite. He believed the trend of history reverses itself every 2000 years or so, making a complete circle every 26,000 years (see Precession of the Equinoxes [www.crystalinks.com] />
Unable to convince Maud Gonne to marry him (or her daughter either, for that matter, if I remember correctly), WBY got hitched to Georgie Hyde-Lees when he was early fifties and she mid twenties. Nice work if you can get it! Georgie managed to convince William B. that she could do 'automatic writing', she being used as a vehicle for spirits to convey messages to her husband. I suspect she developed this talent to counteract the influence of Maud, but I have a suspicious nature, I confess. Whatever her motivation, it certainly worked well. Yeats became convinced such messages from the beyond were intended to provide him with metaphors for his poetry. If you get a chance, try to get a copy of 'A Vision', where Yeats outlines the whole schmear, but you are smarter than I am if you can follow it all.

See also: [www.astrologyinstitute.com] />
What is Christ's opposite? One could think of Satan, but that is more God's opposite. Using the current rise of Islam, perhaps we could say it is Mohammed who plays the role of the rough beast, coming from the sands of the desert. Anyway, some kind of sphinxlike creature, stirring to life and preparing to take over the world. Perhaps Osama bin Laden? Pure conjecture, sure.

For Spiritus Mundi, think Spirit of the World, also called Anima Mundi, or Soul of the World. If all this is just too, too ridiculous, take the basic message as 'things fall apart', and go from there.

The poem has two stanzas of 8 lines and 14 lines, 22 total. I would think it should have 20 (centuries), but Yeats may have thought the reversal would come in year 2200 instead of 2000. If he intended a Fibonacci sequence (which I believe was known by his time), there should have been 8 lines, then 13.

A final conjecture: what was the reversal 2000 years before Christ? Akhenaten?

Fibbonacci was 117-1230, so definately know by Yeats' time.

2000BC Middle Kingdon of Egypt, just after the pyramids were built, Middle period Minoan, while Knossos was founded, a centuary before Abraham left Ur, Stonehenge was continueing developement. Abraham might fit the thought.

Much obliged. Pure speculation, in any case.

I'm guessing Yeats's projected next Christ should only be being born right about now, somewhere in a desert country, no doubt. So that eliminates my guesses on Mohammed, bin Laden, and the like. Still, Osama may be useful for the class assigment.

Clearly, Akhenaten (although the first to embrace monotheism) was born too late to satisfy the 2k year cycle requirement. Someone in Egypt's Middle Kingdom fits the time frame, but no one person jumps immediately to mind. Doesn't have to be in this geographical region, I presume, could be China, India, South America, or wherever.

From: My Trip To Morocco
(Those Arabs had it figured out a long time ago.)

They wear those baggy pants
Which are loosely bound.
That's to catch the second coming
Before it hits the ground.

E.J. Lewis

Ah, I found the previous era, symbolized by Leda and the Swan,

[www.poets.org] />
Yeats apparently saw this as a union of heaven and earth, for the 2000 year period before the Christian era. He thought those times so "barren and effete" that only a "birth from above" could save them.

Trying to pin down the timeline of Greek mythology, Zeus was born circa 1700 bc (a bit too early already?).

[www.btinternet.com] />
That site puts Helen's birth at 1233 bc and her abduction by Paris at 1203 bc. Some authorities put the Trojan war at 1250-1240 bc, but either epoc misses Yeats's 2k year time frame by a whole great big bunch.

Oh, well, it was his theory. He could do what he wanted with it.

Seems ridiculous to think that Helen was hatched, presumably Leda had slaves to sit on the eggs.

Hugh, South America wasn't having history in those days, just people getting on with life and becoming archaeology, China was pre-dynastic (don't know what they were doing) India was in a bad way, the Ayrians had just moved in from northern Iran and smashed Harrapa and Mahenjo-daro.

Es verdad. Didja notice on the Greek mythology site that,

"1460 A Flood is sent by Zeus to destroy all of mankind after Lycaon outrages the Gods. Deucalion and his family escape in an Ark which Prometheus tells him to build."

I didn't remember that either. Tells me it is about time to revisit Joseph Campbell's stuff and polish my mythology.

Please help me. I am a senios in high school and I need to pass this speech class in order to graduate. I have to finish this Oral Interpertation by 8:00 a.m. central time.
The poem I need help with is Phenomenal Women by Maya Angelou.
Please get back to me ASAP.
Thanks alot,
Yesenia A.

Posted to Yesenia's thread.

Les



Post Edited (09-08-04 03:01)

CAN YOU HELP ME SUMMARIZE THE POEM "PHENOMENAL WOMEN" BY MAYA ANGELOU? HELP ME BREAK IT DOWN STANZA BY STANZA.