“The Second Coming”, written by William Butler Yeats echoes the vision of the Biblical revelation of the coming of Jesus Christ where the world will firstly dominated by the anti Christ society or Illuminati. The symbolism in the poem is intense and warns the contemporary society about the catastrophe of the world is at hands. The themes of the poem is the transitional phases to new era , decaying of society , visionary elements and others. The poem shrouds the world of decay which is moving to another stage and hence the poem envisions the coming of the Christ and its transitional dawn of era.
The poem directly addresses the catastrophe and disaster that is supposed to come to the society. The “gyre” is a symbol of circle from the Birth of Christ to the Second coming. Yeats depicts the instability of the society where the image of “centre” symbolizes the social governance which has weaken in the contemporary age. He states that the “falcon” is unable to hear the words of the “falconer” symbolizing lost humanity and disconnected world. He highlights that the “anarchy is loosed upon the world” and “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed” which symbolizes the treacherous war and the political upheaval.
Yeats depicts the impact of war on mental consciousness stating that war affects the “ceremony of innocence ” which is “drowned” or decayed. The younger generation’s innocence is affected and hence the one’s who are “best lack all conviction” suggesting the lack of moral firm belief which shows the religious doubts and its fragility since Darwin’s Theory. Yeats also points out the the excessive desires of individual in modern society where the “worst” are caught in “full of passionate intensity” which symbolizes the attachment to worldly desires caused due to World War I.
Yeats alludes to the Biblical revelation of doom and future avalanche that will happen in this world implying that “The Second Coming ” is at hand. The title of the poem “The Second Coming” is an allusion to the Bible from the book of Revelation that Jesus Christ is coming back to earth and its transitional phases that will encounter the world. These allusion helps to bridge the pictorial image of contemporary modern society which is decayed and is moving to its transitional phase.
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Lastly, he further brings forth the visionary elements to the poem which is an allusion from the events of Revelation. He states that the “Spiritus Mundis” which is a symbol of spirit of mankind or the condition of mankind “Troubles my sight” to perceive the prophecy where the “sands of the desert” near the “shape with lion body and the head of a man” symbolizes the Sphinx from Pyramid or the beast will come out unseen as mention in the Bible where the beast will come out from the land as “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun” to mankind which “moving its slow thighs” on the world. He further argues in comparison to the Biblical prophecy that the “indignant birds” of the desert reel about the movement after “twenty centuries” of deep slumber the world will wake up and will be “vexed to nightmare”. The “rough beast” is the symbolical reference to the rising Sphinx or the members of anti Christ or beast which has come “around at last” slouching “towards Bethlehem to be born?” symbolizes the new transitional age where according to the Bible the”rough beast” or Satan or the members of anti Christ will dominate the world and rule the world.
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