second coming

[beauti_life]

hi
please
can anybody help me??
i want to know the visions of yeats in his poem
the second coming....

[beauti_life]

please
can any body help me????????????????????????

[mayneverhave]

Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" deals primarily with the cycle of ages (particularly the transition from one age to the next), which, in Yeats' mind, was represented by spiraling "gyres" which would gradually become wider and wider until the next age was born at the very tip of a new gyre. In Yeats' poem, the transition from the current age to the next is represented by the destruction of civil order, and more forebodingly, the slouching of the sphynx from egypt to bethlehem - which is of particular religious significance, given the fact that Yeats saw this as the Christian age. Thus, a new age is borne out of this violent reversal.

In one of his notes on the poem, Yeats wrote: “the end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the character of the next age, is represented by the coming of one gyre to its place of greatest expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction.”

This cyclical view of time has been a recurrent theme in culture. There’s Giambattista Vico’s seminal theories on history, Nietzsche’s idea of “Eternal Return”, James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”, and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, which deals with the idea of the destruction and reconstruction (or lack thereof) of human culture (which itself is heavily influenced by the Grail and Fisher King myths). You could also very well include films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and, more recently, "The Fountain".


Obviously, this is some heavy stuff, and the meaning of “The Second Coming” goes far beyond the brief description I’ve just given. I particularly enjoy the poem because, not only is it extraordinarily deep, but it also remains particularly entertaining and intimidating even without all its layers of depth.

[beauti_life]

thanks for your help

[Virgil]

Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" deals primarily with the cycle of ages (particularly the transition from one age to the next), which, in Yeats' mind, was represented by spiraling "gyres" which would gradually become wider and wider until the next age was born at the very tip of a new gyre. In Yeats' poem, the transition from the current age to the next is represented by the destruction of civil order, and more forebodingly, the slouching of the sphynx from egypt to bethlehem - which is of particular religious significance, given the fact that Yeats saw this as the Christian age. Thus, a new age is borne out of this violent reversal.

In one of his notes on the poem, Yeats wrote: “the end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the character of the next age, is represented by the coming of one gyre to its place of greatest expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction.”

This cyclical view of time has been a recurrent theme in culture. There’s Giambattista Vico’s seminal theories on history, Nietzsche’s idea of “Eternal Return”, James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”, and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, which deals with the idea of the destruction and reconstruction (or lack thereof) of human culture (which itself is heavily influenced by the Grail and Fisher King myths). You could also very well include films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and, more recently, "The Fountain".


Obviously, this is some heavy stuff, and the meaning of “The Second Coming” goes far beyond the brief description I’ve just given. I particularly enjoy the poem because, not only is it extraordinarily deep, but it also remains particularly entertaining and intimidating even without all its layers of depth.

A nice little summary, Mayneverhave. Welcome to lit net to you and beauti_life.

[Lioness_Heart]

this might not be much use because i read it ages ago, but:

there's the whole terrible vision of the future

the distorted parousia

and the 'vision' in a more literal sense, ie the imagery of the poem is about what was happening at the time, like the exploration of egypt and suchlike

[quasimodo1]

Virgil: Kind of you to advise about Yeats; and a concise explanation it is.

[Virgil]

Virgil: Kind of you to advise about Yeats; and a concise explanation it is.

Actually I've been reading a bit of Yeats lately. I love his work.

[rgdmalaysia]

mayneverhave's description is very good.

I would also add that I read in a Yeats biography that he was influenced specifically by the Book of Revelations part of the Bible and the idea of the endtimes(Which is a concept every major religion has).

One can look at signs and think their generation is living in the endtimes based on current events....I recall Yeats was indulging in that a little himself and did state that.

[beauti_life]

thank you very much all of you
you save me


but if any body help me

Second coming is well-known poem
If anybody know the main idea of each stanza
Pleas help me...
I want five or less sentences for each one.
It sentences not explanation
It my research paper work in this year......

[blazeofglory]

hi
please
can anybody help me??
i want to know the visions of yeats in his poem
the second coming....

This poem is really one of the best poems I like of Yeats, and indeed it says something of the coming of Christ.