The Second Coming- Yeats - DPChallenge Forums

12/16/2008 12:21:03 PM · #1

What do you think about it?

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 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.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

12/16/2008 12:40:54 PM · #2

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their
food, and tyrannize their teachers.

This was credited to Socrates, Doom and gloom have been around for centuries. Don't accept it, Live your life so as to prove it false or overstated.

12/16/2008 12:42:03 PM · #3

ah but isnt it just delightedly evil? so freaking cool

12/16/2008 12:47:35 PM · #4

Evil or not depends on your point of view and which side of the action you are on.

12/16/2008 12:52:45 PM · #5

what situation are you viewing it in?

12/16/2008 12:54:54 PM · #6

I see a means to a chicken dinner, the chickens see it as genocide.

12/16/2008 12:57:02 PM · #7

lol yeh. kinda sucks i thought that was funny:/

i guess i look at it from more of a wording and composition work. i love how it flows and grips the reader. im not that great of a poetry person, i dont look as deep as others do

12/16/2008 01:02:36 PM · #8

Nothing wrong with that. I like that you are accepting of other points of view. Education will serve you well. If you like dark imagery, try Edgar Allen Poe. He had the 18 century market cornered on weird and dark.

Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED AL [IF] WR DC

12/16/2008 01:05:35 PM · #9

ive tried reading Poe, didnt really enjoy it at th time. ill pick it up again during christmas break here in a few days. i want to hunt down a yeats book just for giggles too.

anyone else out there want to contribute?

tnun

Ricoh GR III

12/16/2008 01:05:51 PM · #10

Great poem, worth memorizing. Meanings flit in and out of it throughout one's life.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

12/16/2008 01:08:23 PM · #11

Originally posted by Notroubles:

Poe was 19th Century (1809-1849), and Ambrose Bierce gave him stiff competition for portrayals of the dark side ...

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

12/16/2008 01:10:10 PM · #12

W.B. Yeats public domain works at Project Gutenberg. Download text for free.

12/16/2008 01:13:32 PM · #13

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Notroubles:
Nothing wrong with that. I like that you are accepting of other points of view. Education will serve you well. If you like dark imagery, try Edgar Allen Poe. He had the 18 century market cornered on weird and dark.

Poe was 19th Century (1809-1849), and Ambrose Bierce gave him stiff competition for portrayals of the dark side ...

I plead brain cramp on the century, and I will need to re-read some Bierce.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

12/16/2008 01:15:59 PM · #14

Originally posted by GeneralE:

W.B. Yeats public domain works at Project Gutenberg. Download text for free.

hey cool! thanks

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

12/16/2008 02:07:11 PM · #15

Try "Sailing to Byzantium", essentially Yeats' prescription for how he'd wish to deal with the problem :-)

R.