The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats: A Prophetic Vision of Chaos and Change

Introduction:

W.B. Yeats’s The Second Coming, written in 1919, stands as one of the most haunting and prescient poems of the 20th century. Composed in the aftermath of World War I and amidst the political turbulence of the Irish War of Independence, the poem captures a moment in history where old certainties were crumbling, and the future seemed ominous and unknowable. Yeats, a poet deeply influenced by mysticism, mythology, and historical cycles, uses rich symbolism to portray the violent birth of a new era—a second coming not of Christ, but of something terrifying and unknown.

  

Analysis: The Falcon, the Gyre, and the Rough Beast

The poem opens with a striking image of disintegration:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

The "gyre" is Yeats's symbol for historical cycles, spirals of time that expand and collapse in 2,000-year phases. The falcon, a symbol of human civilization or perhaps the soul, has lost contact with its master, suggesting a world spinning out of control. The collapse of order ("the centre cannot hold") anticipates a descent into chaos, a theme that resonates with both the political upheavals of Yeats’s day and modern global uncertainties.

Yeats paints a vision of the world saturated with blood and indifference:

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.

These lines express Yeats’s fear that the moral compass of the world is inverted—those who should lead with wisdom are passive, while extremists shape the new order with unchecked zeal.

In the second half, Yeats turns prophet:

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand...

But instead of Christ, what emerges from "Spiritus Mundi" (the collective soul of the world) is a "rough beast"—a monstrous, sphinx-like figure "slouching towards Bethlehem to be born." This chilling final image suggests not salvation, but the birth of a new, darker era. The "Second Coming" is no longer a Christian redemption but an apocalyptic transformation.

Conclusion: 

Though rooted in the early 20th century, The Second Coming has gained fresh relevance in every era of turmoil—from the Cold War to modern political unrest and climate crises. Yeats’s vision of a crumbling world order, rising extremism, and the cyclical nature of history speaks with eerie clarity even today. The poem doesn’t offer answers, but it forces us to confront the question: What kind of future are we spiraling toward?