As I said the first night, literature deals with truth, and truth applies from one generation to the next. What is written at one specific time in history, has truths for later generations. This is the case with The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet of the early 20th century.
This poem was written at the end of World War I, when the world as people had known it, had truly ended. Yet people today still find meaning in it, and its words have applied to the entire 20th century, and well into the 21st century.
Some of the phrases from the poem have been used as titles for books, as Things Fall Apart. People often speak about the "center holding." The "ceremony of innocence" is used countless times and in countless ways. I think "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" could without a doubt be applied to today, or many times since 1919.
We always think The Second Coming is at hand because of this or that happening.....floods, drought, blizzards, famine......etc. We think we are original in this; we are not.
How timely is this poem with what is going on now in Egypt! "...somewhere in the sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man."......the eternal image of the sphinx and its terribleness.
Is Mubarak the sphinx, or are the people the sphinx, now rousing itself? Will they be the ones to solve the riddle of the sphinx?
What a picture he paints in "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" How many false prophets could that have been said about this past century?
We, today, think we are the first ones to have these feelings. We are not. We follow in a long line. Remember all the fuss about Y2K and how meaningless it was? The year 1000 promoted the same kind of panic in Europe, with the same stupid things said about that coming year.
Good poets speak to all ages. They share truths that we can get hold of and use for understanding. They are not trite, nor easy to get hold of. We must mine deep for their meanings.
Enjoy!
I do agree with you about how this poem is for all generations because there have always been all always will be people who think that they can predict when the is coming. Obviously these people have not read the bible. It says in the bible that no one will know the time or day of Jesus return. Whenever people say that the end is happening on such and such day, I know I can mark that day off and go on with my life. I do admit that it seems like everything is lining up for his return though. For instance I don't ever remember having so many earthquakes in Oklahoma as a kid.
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