Table of Contents
What is Yeats predicting in The Second Coming?
In a 1936 letter to a friend, Yeats said that the poem was ‘written some 16 or 17 years ago and foretold what is happening’, that is, Yeats poetically predicted the rise of a rough beast that manifested as chaos and upheaval in the form of Nazism and Fascism, bringing Europe to its knees.
What vision of future is reflected in the poem The Second Coming?
“The Second Coming” is a deeply ambiguous poem. Indeed, Yeats revised specific cultural references out of the poem before its publication. But there’s no mistaking that this is a bleak vision of the future of humankind, one which presents morality as a kind of collective dream that is now turning into a nightmare.
What is the purpose of the poem The Second Coming?
The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to allegorically describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. It is considered a major work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
Was WB Yeats Catholic?
Normally, Yeats would have been expected to identify with his Protestant tradition—which represented a powerful minority among Ireland’s predominantly Roman Catholic population—but he did not.
How does the repetition of the phrase The Second Coming?
PART A: How does the repetition of the phrase “The Second Coming” in lines 10-11 contribute to the tone of the poem? The repetition emphasizes the speaker’s worry and contributes to the fearful tone.
What vision of future is suggested in second half of The Second Coming?
The second stanza, if anything, is more bleak and uncompromising than the first and is incredible in the way that it paints a horrifying picture of the future that the speaker anticipates will befall humanity.
What is the form of The Second Coming poem?
3.1 Form. The poem “The Second Coming” consists of two stanzas, with eight verses in the first stanza, and 14 verses in the second one. Its rhyme scheme is blank verse. Moreover, the poem lives on a rough, loose and irregular iambic pentameter.
Who did W. B. Yeats love?
In 1889 Yeats met Maud Gonne, an Irish beauty, ardent and brilliant. From that moment, as he wrote, “the troubling of my life began.” He fell in love with her, but his love was hopeless. Maud Gonne liked and admired him, but she was not in love with him.
Did W. B. Yeats believe in God?
Yeats derided MacBride in letters and in poetry. He was horrified by Gonne’s marriage, at losing his muse to another man; in addition, her conversion to Catholicism before marriage offended him; Yeats was Protestant/agnostic.
When did WB Yeats write the poem the Second Coming?
1919
Yeats was justified in taking the long view. Written in 1919 and published in 1920, “The Second Coming” has become perhaps the most plundered poem in the English language.