Summary of the poem The Second Coming by W.B.Yeats

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The Second Coming

-         W.B. Yeats

The second Coming is a visionary poem written by W.B. Yeats in the year 1920. The poem was inspired by the wide – spread murder and blood shed in Ireland and the great war of 1914 – 1919. The title of this poem suggests the second coming of Christ. During the 20th century people believed in the destruction of the universe and the second coming.


In the first stanza Yeats uses a gyre image to show how civilizations come and go. The image of the falcon and the falconer show how man has lost control over immoral passions. The spirit and mind can no longer control the flesh. The forces of this order and anarchy do not obey the voice of the falconer. The anarchy that is loosed upon the world causes are innocent life to be drowned in a blood – dimmed tide. The center can no longer hold its power over the course of civilization.

All these are the signs of second coming. The terrible events marked by great violence anticipate the birth of a new civilization as the old one is destroyed. The poem becomes prophetic because the signs are very clear. They all point to the second coming.  No sooner a terrible image begins to take a shape. This monstrous image out of spirituous mundi causes a great fright all around. It has the head of a man and the body of a lion and it rises from the dust. The desert is also a powerful image suggesting how civilization will be utterly reduced to the bareness of a desert. The size and terrible aspect of this figure make the desert birds frantic with fear. They scream around in great agitation. Their shadows create darkness all around.

Yeats go back two thousand years before the birth of Christ. The gyre divides civilization into periods of 2000 years.  Since Christ was born in Bethlehem the poet imagines the beast slouching towards Bethlehem.

To represent the historic cycle comprising of 2000 years. Yeats uses the image of the gyres. The words turning and widening show how every good thing is society is going out of control. The poet speaks of the inability of the falconer to control and command the falcon. The poet is troubled in its imagination as he thinks of the blank and pitiless nature of a new world order. The slow thighs of the beast are a sign of a great destructive forces that will make the present civilization a blood – dimmed tide.  

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