Russian icon of "The Second Coming" c. 1700
The Second Coming is a poem composed by Irish poet W. B. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and second coming allegorically to describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe.[1] The poem is considered a major work of Modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.[2]
Historical context
The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War[3] and was at first entitled "The Second Birth".
Literary influence
Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart takes its title from a phrase in the poem, as does Joan Didion's 1968 collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Lou Reed quotes the final lines of the opening verse ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity") at the beginning of his Live: Take No Prisoners album (1978).
See also
1920 in poetry
1921 in poetry
References
Albright, Daniel. "Quantum Poetics: Yeats's figures as reflections in Water", Cambridge University Press (1997), p. 35.
Childs, Peter, Modernism, Routledge (2007), p. 39.
Haugheny, Jim (2002), The First World War in Irish Poetry, p. 161. Bucknell University Press.
External links
Free video adaptation of the poem
Text of the poem
Original 'Second Coming' MS on display at National Library of Ireland
"The Second Coming" in the context of A Vision
(Kaynak: Wikipedia)
