Analysis of "The Second Coming" From aural to visual, warnings come in a variety of different ways. Be it a traffic light or a siren, they all have a specific way of giving one a message. William Butler Yeats sends a warning differently, but the message he is sending out is a dangerous and frightening one. In his poem " The Second Coming," Yeats uses harsh imagery, powerful language, and strong symbolism to warn readers of a world in a chaotic downfall and the approach of the birth of an antichrist in a new two thousand year cycle.
Yeats begins prophetic poem with harsh and dark imagery. The speaker states: Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falconer cannot hear the falconer/ Things fall apart: the center cannot hold"æ. (1-3). Just as a falcon flies higher out of control of its owner, the world is unraveling, and no matter how hard it tries to save itself from impending doom no one can "hear" its cry for help.
English: William Butler Yeats, sepia-toned platino...
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet
en: Portrait of young William Butler Yeats by his ...The world has abandoned a common goal. Without a unifying center, "things fall apart," and the idea of anarchy is introduced.
Yeats furthers this idea of anarchy by using some very meaningful and descriptive language to describe the change that will happen in the new cycle of two thousand years. Yeats uses powerful language to vividly describe the change that will happen in the new cycle of two thousand years. According to the speaker, evil is beginning to reign supreme over good. The world is sinking further into despair.
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"æ. (4-8) Acts of war and the loss of innocence have...