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The Second Coming: Analysis - Online Term Paper

The Second Coming: Analysis

The poem “The Second Coming” was written by William Butler Yeats in 1919. Yeats was an accomplished Irish poet and was known for the socio-religious ideas he emphasized in his poetry. In “The Second Coming,” his ideas unfold in three significant metaphors.
The first metaphor relates a falcon and its falconer to the destruction of society. The metaphor has two possible interpretations. One view may be that the falcon represents society and the falconer represents God and morality. By saying “The falcon cannot hear the falconer,” Yeats may be implying that society has lost sight of God and has lost the values and morals once held in place by the strong obedience to God. In another ...

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up one socio-religious theme that society has lost order and in turn lost faith in God.
The second metaphor conveys Yeats’ idea that anarchy has taken over. The metaphor begins with “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed," suggesting that the purity of the soul has been corrupted by the destruction that accompanies chaos. Yeats uses the second line of the metaphor, “...and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned,” to show how the value of life, health of country, and civilized order have died. In this metaphor Yeats conveys his socio-religious idea that the deterioration of societal morals has led the way for anarchy to corrupt the religious purity of the individual.
The third metaphor brings out Yeats’ religious idea of the Second Coming of Christ. Yeats begins the second stanza with “Surely some revelation is at hand,” alluding to the fact that the situation of anarchy and devastation is so grave it is crying out for the Second Coming of Christ. He uses the Sphinx, a ...

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The Second Coming: Analysis. (2006, September 23). Retrieved August 21, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Second-Coming-Analysis/52830

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 9/23/2006 06:27:27 AM
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 495
Pages: 2

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