Journals, newspaper reports, online news, books, pop music, movies…the “visionary man” is everywhere!
It was 1919 when “The Second Coming” appeared and shook with its prophetic, mystic and obscure tone, but since then the poem has never stopped to be quoted and thus to regain strength in whoever’s works. The question is why? Why is this poem so powerful?
As Tabor’s “Paris Review” essay explains, Yeats started writing the poem at the end of the “First World War, the Russian Revolution and the political turmoil in his native Ireland”, and the poem seems in part to reflect the feelings of desolation, loss, anxiety that Europe was experiencing. The poem is divided in two stanzas: the first one seems to describe the conditions of Europe at the end of war, while the second one forebodes that a horrible second coming is about to take place. The imagery used in the first stanza evokes a world that has lost its natural order: “The falcon cannot hear the falconer”, “the centre cannot hold” (“The Second Coming” 2,3); chaos and anarchy reign everywhere. But in the second stanza the imagery turns to be more vivid with the biblical lexicon “revelation” (9), “Second Coming” (10,11) “rough beast” (21) and the well-known final line “slouches towards Bethlehem” (22). The poem evokes the tone of the messianic prophecies from the Gospels and the Christian Eschatologies about the future return of Jesus to Earth, while the image of the beast comes from the Apocalypse of Saint John the Apostle. However, christian imagery is melted with the mythological reference to the sphinx, the concept of the Spiritus Mundi that stands for the collective spirit of mankind, and Yeats’ cyclical conception of history seen in the image of the gyre. Therefore, Yeats is not talking about the Second Coming of Christ, but of a “new messiah” which is described as a monstrous being. A new era is coming, marked by the subverting of the human order.
This brief analysis shows that it’s very difficult to understand the poem completely. Is Yeats foreboding the disaters of the 20th century? In a sense the poem seems to be abstract and cryptic because, despite its multiple allusions to specific events, its prophetic tone makes it possible to have different interpretations. As Tabor says, “Its anxiety concerns the social ills of modernity; the rupture of traditional family and societal structures; the loss of collective religious faith, and with it, the collective sense of purpose; the feeling that the old rules no longer apply and there’s nothing to replace them”. Therefore the reason why the poem is so quoted lies in its prophetic power. “As for the slouching beast” continues Tabor “the best explanation is that it’s not a particular political regime (…) but a broader historical force, comprising the technological, the ideological, and the political.” In particularly the last verse is frequently quoted by popular culture because the rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem could be seen as an allegory for any horrible event in history. Reporters have fun in depicting with apocalyptic tones the euro crisis and the tragic conditions in which Europe is drowning. Is there a better way to describe the European recession than using the last line of Yeats’ “The Second Coming”? The Guardian article’s title “The euro crisis: slouching towards Bethlehem” means that the eurozone is slouching toward its breaking up, in other words, towards a catastrophe. The article borrows the apocalyptic tone from the poem, talking about “panic”, “hysteria” and foreboding that the “final option, of course, however unimaginable it once seemed” is the end of the eurozone age. As a European I think the catastrophic attitude used by The Guardian is perfectly suitable, and not just for the euro crisis, but also for the European crisis. In fact, the economic crisis is just a surface that covers the deepest cultural one. Europe seems to have forgotten its own identity and the principles of Freedom and Democracy thus risking to commit suicide.
Works Cited:
Yeats, W. B. The Second Coming. Poetry Foundation. Web. 23 September 2015.
The euro crisis: slouching towards Bethlehem.The Guardian. N.p., Thursday 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Sept. 2015
Tabor, Nick. The Paris Review. The Paris Review, 7 Apr. 2015. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.
Dear Francesca,
First, I really like the tools you used to reach the attention of the reader. It worked with me ! I find especially interesting the fact that you use rhetorical questions to introduce your ideas. I never thought about it but it is a good idea. Your introduction and conclusion are really good and captivating.
I don’t however really agree with the fact that the Eurozone can come to an end. I don’t see how this could be possible as the Europe is one of the great powers in the world. Especially because it was a struggle for the population to fully adapt themselves to this new currency.
However, I really enjoyed reading your post.
Honorine.
Thank you so much. I’m glad you appreciated it. However I think it’s not just a question of power. Even if sharing the same currency is supposed to be convenient for the Eurozone members, there are a lot of disparities between them and the economic crisis is affecting each country in a different way, so that for some European nations there are no advantages. Moreover, what I was trying to say is that Europe is turning into a bureaucratic system, forgetting its great history, identity and culture, in other words, forgetting the reason why it exists. European countries experienced the evils of war and religious and political totalitarianisms, but they finally established a democratic system, assuring freedom, rights and equality to everybody. It took us centuries to gain this freedom and become a peaceful continent. What is happening now in Europe shows that we are forgetting the importance of being a community. For example, the tragedy of the immigrants and refugees is emblemaic of the current situation. Italy is almost the only country that for several months received them, without any European help. France closed its borders, leaving hundreds of people starving on the frontier line for weeks, thus violating the most elementary principles of human rights.