The Second Coming

A Second Coming Analysis

After reading the collection of poems, I remained most interested in “A Second Coming”.   Poetry is hard for me to enjoy.  Several times it was briefly covered throughout grade school; all resulting in perplexing headaches.  The only thing I proved to myself I had retained was noticing specific words or phrases capitalized in the middle of a text that would not otherwise be capitalized.  In the second stanza of the poem “The Second Coming” is as previously stated capitalized; indicating a reference to significance, name or title, ect.  I’m by no means a speculator of theology, however; I do recall associating the phrase The Second Coming to Jesus returning to Earth, beyond that, I will have  to ask Google.

I feel the first stanza really paints a vivid picture that depicts how someone who just experienced the absolute anguish of the First World War feels.  I imagine based on the first stanza the world was an unsure place that felt like it was out of synch; nothing was as it should be.  It’s as if the author witnessed the Earth’s crust split open and watched Hell’s contents ransack the world.  The joy in the world the author lived for was extinguished by this event and replaced by the worst possible opposite.

The rest of the poem is tough for me to breakdown and depict.  I don’t see any bright light at the end of this tunnel so to speak.  I think William Yeats was foreshadowing the religious belief of Armageddon.  I find it harder to relate to him.  I certainly believe the world at that time conveyed to people living during the event of the World War the end was near, a sense of desperation and dire need of a higher power to fix the injustice and restore the world to its previous state.

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