“ the Second Coming” by W.B Yeats

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“The man that does not fear punishment, little regards crime.” – Norman Macdonald. Without punishment and the presence of command, the world will be a terrible place to live in. In the poem “the Second Coming’, by W.B Yeats, the theme is chaos. The poem states in line 1-2, “turning and turning in the widening gyre; the falcon cannot hear the falconer”, in other words the falconer represents the presence of command/ God, while the falcon represents society. Since the gyre is widening, it means that society is moving away from god and there is no center to hold the society together, which eventually leads to chaos. The poem contains numerous of tones, the first stanza’s tone is depressing, “the best lack all convictions, while the worst; are full of passionate intensity” line 7-8. The tone shifts from depressing to being certain. “Surely some revelation is at hand; surely the second coming is at hand.” Line 9-10, Yeats seems certain that there will be a second coming. The poem ends with a question, “slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” causing the tone to shift to confusion. Throughout the poem, Yeats incorporates multiple examples of imagery. Yeats uses dark imagery which gives the reader a sense of death, while at the same time the reader gets the feeling of the loss of innocence. For example “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere; the ceremony of innocence is drowned”. Another example of imagery used in the poem is, “a shape with lion body and the head of a man; a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun; is moving its slow thighs” line 14-16, gives the reader an imagine of the Sphinx which symbolizes a judger of evil. The meaning of the imagery used in line 14-16 is the ultimate judgment or destruction of all of
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