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Slouches towards ] to be born?</poem>}} Slouches towards ] to be born?</poem>}}


"'''The Second Coming'''" is a poem written by Irish poet ] in ], first printed in '']'' in November ] and included in his ] collection of verses '']''.<ref name="grdn"/> The poem uses ] imagery regarding the ] and ] to describe ] the atmosphere of post-war ].<ref>{{Citation| url = http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/73054/sample/9780521573054ws.pdf | last = Albright | first = Daniel | title = Quantum Poetics: Yeats's figures as reflections in Water | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1997 | page = 35}}.</ref> It is considered a major work of ] and has been reprinted in several collections, including ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Childs |first= Peter |title= Modernism |publisher= Routledge |year= 2007 |page= 39|isbn=978-0-41541546-0|edition= 2nd|series= The New Critical Idiom}}</ref> '''“The Second Coming”''' is a poem written by Irish poet ] in ], first printed in '']'' in November ] and included in his ] collection of verses '']''.<ref name="grdn"/> The poem uses ] imagery regarding the ] and ] to describe ] the atmosphere of post-war ].<ref>{{Citation| url = http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/73054/sample/9780521573054ws.pdf | last = Albright | first = Daniel | title = Quantum Poetics: Yeats's figures as reflections in Water | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1997 | page = 35}}.</ref> It is considered a canonical work of ] and has been reprinted in several collections, including ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Childs |first= Peter |title= Modernism |publisher= Routledge |year= 2007 |page= 39|isbn=978-0-41541546-0|edition= 2nd|series= The New Critical Idiom}}</ref>


==Historical context== ==Historical context==
The poem was written in 1919 in the ] the ]<ref>{{Cite book |last= Haughey |first=Jim|year=2002|title= The First World War in Irish Poetry|page=161|publisher=Bucknell University Press |isbn=978-1-61148151-8}}</ref> and the beginning of the ] in January 1919, which followed the ] in April 1916, and before the ] had decided to send in the ] to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.<ref>{{cite book |first=Seamus|last=Deane |title= Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing Since 1790 |series= Clarendon lectures in English literature |page= 179| chapter=Boredom and Apocalypse |publisher= Clarendon Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19818490-4}}</ref> The poem was written in 1919 in the ] the ]<ref>{{Cite book |last= Haughey |first=Jim|year=2002|title= The First World War in Irish Poetry|page=161|publisher=Bucknell University Press |isbn=978-1-61148151-8}}</ref> and the beginning of the ] in January 1919, which followed the ] in April 1916, and before the ] had decided to send in the ] to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.<ref>{{cite book |first=Seamus|last=Deane |title= Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing Since 1790 |series= Clarendon lectures in English literature |page= 179| chapter=Boredom and Apocalypse |publisher= Clarendon Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19818490-4}}</ref>


To understand Yeats' cosmology it is essential to read his book '']'' where he explained his views on history and how it informed his poetry. Yeats saw human history as a series of epochs, what he called "gyres." He saw the age of classical antiquity as beginning with the Trojan War and then that thousand year cycle was overtaken by the Christian era, which is coming to a close. And that is the basis of the final line of the poem, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Yeats′s cosmology is laid out in his book '']'', where he explained his views on history and how it informed his poetry. Yeats saw human history as a series of epochs, what he called "gyres." He saw the age of classical antiquity as beginning with the Trojan War and then that thousand year cycle was overtaken by the Christian era, which is coming to a close. And that is the basis of the final line of the poem: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"


The poem is also connected to the ]. In the weeks preceding Yeats's writing of the poem, his pregnant wife, ], caught the virus and was very close to death, but she survived. The highest death rates of the pandemic were among pregnant women, who in some areas had a death rate of up to 70%. Yeats wrote the poem while his wife was convalescing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Onion |first1=Rebecca |title=The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint? |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/1918-pandemic-cultural-memory-literature-outka.html |website=Slate |date=3 May 2020 |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="grdn">{{cite news |last1=Lynskey |first1=Dorian |title='Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/things-fall-apart-the-apocalyptic-appeal-of-wb-yeats-the-second-coming |access-date=30 May 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=30 May 2020}}</ref> The poem is also connected to the ]. In the weeks preceding Yeats′s writing of the poem, his pregnant wife, ], caught the virus and was very close to death, but she survived. The highest death rates of the pandemic were among pregnant women, who in some areas had a death rate of up to 70%. Yeats wrote the poem while his wife was convalescing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Onion |first1=Rebecca |title=The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint? |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/1918-pandemic-cultural-memory-literature-outka.html |website=Slate |date=3 May 2020 |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="grdn">{{cite news |last1=Lynskey |first1=Dorian |title='Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/things-fall-apart-the-apocalyptic-appeal-of-wb-yeats-the-second-coming |access-date=30 May 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=30 May 2020}}</ref>


==Critical engagement==
==In popular culture==
In 2009, David A. Ross identified "The Second Coming" as "one of the most famous poems in the English language,"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ross |first1=David A. |title=Critical companion to William Butler Yeats: a literary reference to his life and work |date=2009 |publisher=Facts On File |location=New York |isbn=9780816058952 |page=219}}</ref> echoing ] who, in 1986, cited the piece as "one of the most universally admired poems of our century."<ref name="Bloom">{{cite book |editor1-last=Bloom |editor1-first=Harold |title=William Butler Yeats |date=1986 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |location=New York |isbn=0877547009 |page=9-11 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>


Critics agree that the poetry of ] had a strong influence on the drafting of "The Second Coming." The first stanza matches the tone, diction, and syntax of '']''.<ref name="Stall">{{cite book |last1=Stallworthy |first1=Jon |title=Between the Lines: Yeats's Poetry in the Making |date=1963 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198116012 |page=22-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bornstein |first1=George |title=Yeats and Shelley |date=1970 |publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=0226066452 |page=201}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Henn |first1=T. R. |title=The Lonely Tower: Studies in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats |date=1965 |publisher=Cox and Wyman Ltd |location=Fakenham |isbn=0415500605 |page=131, 151-153 |edition=Second}}</ref> Both Harold Bloom and Jon Stallworthy speculate that the poem's ] draws off the imagery of Shelley's ].<ref name="Bloom"/><ref name="Stall"/>
Phrases and lines from the poem are used in many works, in a variety of media, including literature, motion pictures, television, and music. Works which reference "The Second Coming" (titles, quotes, etc.) include:

⚫ *]'s political manifesto'' ]'' (1949), a defence of political ], opens by citing the Yeats poem<ref> {{cite news |last=Spark |first=Claire |date= |title=Arthur Schlesinger's Missing Vital Center |url=http://hnn.us/articles/36239.html |work=History News Center |location= |access-date=}}</ref>
Critics have also argued that "The Second Coming" describes what Yeats elsewhere called an "antithetical ] to the age ushered in by the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yeats |first1=W. B. |last2=Harper |first2=George Mills |last3=Hood |first3=Walter Kelly |title=A critical edition of Yeats's A vision (1925) |date=1978 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |isbn=0333212991 |page=262-263}}</ref> ] understood the "rough beast" of the final lines as a creature to be born itself in ], marking the cyclical (and violent) overturning of an age.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellmann |first1=Richard |title=The Identity of Yeats |date=1964 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0195007123 |page=260 |edition=Reprint}}</ref> ] identified this same idea in Yeats' other writings, noting that
*]'s novel '']'' (1958)<ref name="grdn"/>

*'']'' (1968) is a collection of essays by ] that mainly describes her experiences in ] during the 1960s.<ref name="grdn"/>
<blockquote>"(1) by 1896 Yeats had already some inkling of the cyclical theory of history which he was later to develop and expound in '']''; (2) The ], the birth of Christ, and an indefinite event due to happen in our century were already considered by him as three fundamental crises in world history, each of which reverse the established order and ushered in a new cycle of civilization . . ."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melchiori |first1=Giorgio |title=The whole mystery of art. Pattern into poetry of the work of W. B. Yeats |date=1979 |publisher=Greenwood P |location=Westport |isbn=0837167191 |page=85 |edition=Reprinted}}</ref></blockquote>
*] in his preamble to the song "Sweet Jane" on the 1978 album '']''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tabor |first1=Nick |title=No Slouch |date=7 April 2015 |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/07/no-slouch/ |publisher=]}}</ref>

*]'s 1978 novel '']'' references the poem numerous times, with one character explicitly quoting lines from it<ref name="grdn"/>
==Cultural influences==
*]’s novel '']'' (1980)<ref name="grdn"/>
=== Titles ===
*]'s novel '']'' (1983)
Phrases in the poem have been adopted as the title in a variety of media. The words "things fall apart" in the third line are alluded to by ] in his novel '']'' (1958),<ref name="grdn" /> ] in their album ] (1999),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Banerji |first=Atreyi |date=7 February 2021 |title=The story behind The Roots' 'Things Fall Apart' album cover |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/story-behind-the-roots-things-fall-apart-album-cover/ |website=] |publisher=}}</ref> and ] in his podcast series ''Things Fell Apart'' (2021).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sawyer |first=Miranda |date=2021-11-13 |title=The week in audio: Things Fell Apart; Doomsday Watch; 5 live Breakfast |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/13/things-fell-apart-jon-ronson-review-doomsday-watch-with-arhur-snell-5-live-breakfast-rick-eddwards-rachel-burden-nicky-campbell |website=The Guardian |publisher=}}</ref>
*] in ] (1987) says: "So the falcon's heard the falconer, huh?"<ref name="grdn"/>

*1990 novel '']'', by ] and ], parodies the poem: "slouching hopefully towards Tadfield"<ref name="grdn"/>
Similarly, the words "the centre cannot hold" in the same line are used in the title of ]' book about her experience with schizophrenia while obtaining her PhD at Oxford, and later her JD at Yale, ''The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness'' (2008),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saks |first=Elyn R. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/148726600 |title=The center cannot hold: my journey through madness |date=2007 |publisher=Hyperion |isbn=978-1-4013-0138-5 |edition= |location=New York |oclc=148726600}}</ref> ]'s book on U.S. President ]'s first term, ''The Center Holds'' (2013),<ref>{{cite news |last=Diedrick |first=James |date=September 26, 2015 |title=The Center Cannot Hold VS The Center Holds |url=https://jamesdiedrick.agnesscott.org/global_modernism/yeats/the-center-cannot-hold-vs-the-center-holds/ |access-date= |website=Jamesdiedrick.agnesscott.org |location=}}</ref> the ] biographical documentary '']'' (2017), ]'s album '']'' (2019),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |date=2019-08-15 |title=Sleater-Kinney: The Centre Won't Hold review – fighting death with sex |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/15/sleater-kinney-the-centre-wont-hold-album-review |access-date=2024-02-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and ]'s song "The Center Will Not Hold, Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep" in the film '']'' (2021).<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Mamo |first=Heran |date=12 March 2021 |title='Zack Snyder's Justice League' Soundtrack Is the 'Mount Everest of Scores': See Release Date & Track List |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/zack-snyders-justice-league-soundtrack-date-track-list-9539555/ |magazine=]}}</ref>
*The ] song "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (which quotes or paraphrases almost all of the poem),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Slouching+Towards+Bethlehem%22+joni|access-date=30 Jan 2020|title=Slouching Towards Bethlehem|website=Google.com}}</ref> from 1991 album '']''

*The episode "]" (9 November 1994) of the ] television series '']''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGW1DgAAQBAJ&q=babylon+5+revelations+yeats&pg=PT123|title=A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5|isbn=9781773050508|last1=Guffey|first1=Ensley F.|last2=Dale Koontz|first2=K.|date=19 September 2017|publisher=ECW Press }}</ref>
Additionally, the phrase "slouches towards Bethlehem" in the last line is referenced in the title of ]'s collection of essays '']'' (1968),<ref name="grdn" /> ]'s musical adaptation of the poem "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1991),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitesell |first=Lloyd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAMSDAAAQBAJ |title=The Music of Joni Mitchell |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-530757-3 |language=en}}</ref> ]'s non-fiction work '']'' (1996), Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster’s interactive fiction game '']'' (2003),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chetcuti |first=Clara |date=May 3, 2020 |title=Electronic Literature, or Whatever It’s Called Now: the Archive and the Field |url=https://doi.org/10.7273/zkaa-3611 |journal=Electronic Book Review |doi=}}</ref> and ]'s economic history ''Slouching Towards Utopia'' (2022).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Dylan |date=2022-09-07 |title=Humanity was stagnant for millennia — then something big changed 150 years ago |url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/9/7/23332699/economic-growth-brad-delong-slouching-utopia |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Vox |language=en-US}}</ref>
*The director's cut of the 1995 film ] includes a scene where Director of Central Intelligence ] recites a portion of the poem to President ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Tony |title=Nixon – Oliver Stone's Rough Beast Slouching |url=https://filmint.nu/nixon-oliver-stones-rough-beast-slouching/ |website=Film International |date=2 September 2014}}</ref>

*The 1996 non-fiction book '']'' by ]
Other works whose titles come from lines in the poem includes ]’s novel '']'' (1980),<ref name="grdn" /> ]'s novel '']'' (1983), and multiple songs in ]'s album ] (2018).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Eric Renner |date=2018-02-27 |title=Moby says new album explores 'who we are as a species' |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/moby-says-album-explores-apos-151530255.html |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Yahoo Entertainment |language=en-US}}</ref>
*The 1997 film '']'' ends quoting most of the poem.<ref>{{cite AV media | date = 1997 | title = Hollywood Confidential | language = English | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYe9ez2Q9CQ | location = Los Angeles | publisher = Paramount Television | quote = 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? }}</ref>

*]' platinum album ] (1999)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/story-behind-the-roots-things-fall-apart-album-cover/|title=The story behind The Roots' 'Things Fall Apart' album cover|date=7 February 2021|website=faroutmagazine.co.uk}}</ref>
=== Quotes ===
*The season 5 episode "Cold Cuts" (9 May 2004) of the television series '']'', in which Dr. Jennifer Melfi quotes two lines from the poem, as well as the season 6 episode "]" (20 May 2007) in which ] reads and quotes the poem while struggling with depression. A.J. quotes the poem again in the series finale "]".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Essential Sopranos Reader |date=2011 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |page=75}}</ref>
⚫ The poem is quoted extensively in a number of books, including ]'s political manifesto'' ]'' (1949),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spark |first=Clare L. |title=Arthur Schlesinger's Missing Vital Center |url=https://www.hnn.us/article/arthur-schlesingers-missing-vital-center |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=History News Network |language=en}}</ref> and ]'s novel '']'' (1978).<ref name="grdn" />
* ]'s 2013 political biography of ], ''The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies'' also cites Yeats's poem.<ref>{{cite news |last=Diedrick |first=James |date=September 26, 2015 |title=The Center Cannot Hold VS The Center Holds |url=https://jamesdiedrick.agnesscott.org/global_modernism/yeats/the-center-cannot-hold-vs-the-center-holds/ |website=Jamesdiedrick.agnesscott.org |location= |access-date=}}</ref>

*A chapter is entitled "The Centre Cannot Hold", in the 2014 book of UK political analysis ''The Blunders of Our Governments'' by ] and ].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Anthony Stephen |title=The blunders of our governments |last2=Crewe |first2=Ivor |date=2014 |publisher=Oneworld |isbn=978-1-78074-405-6 |edition=Revised and updated |location=London}}</ref>
It is also quoted extensively in numerous films and TV shows, including the episode "]" (1994) of ''],''<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Guffey |first1=Ensley F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGW1DgAAQBAJ&q=babylon+5+revelations+yeats&pg=PT123 |title=A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5 |last2=Dale Koontz |first2=K. |date=19 September 2017 |publisher=ECW Press |isbn=9781773050508}}</ref> the director's cut of ] (1995),<ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Tony |date=2 September 2014 |title=Nixon – Oliver Stone's Rough Beast Slouching |url=https://filmint.nu/nixon-oliver-stones-rough-beast-slouching/ |website=Film International}}</ref> multiple episodes including "]" (2007) of '']'',<ref>{{cite book |title=The Essential Sopranos Reader |date=2011 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |editor-last=Lavery |editor-first=David |page=75 |editor-last2=Howard |editor-first2=Douglas L. |editor-last3=Levinson |editor-first3=Paul}}</ref> the last episode of ] (2020),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian |date=2020-05-30 |title='Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming, |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/things-fall-apart-the-apocalyptic-appeal-of-wb-yeats-the-second-coming |access-date=2024-02-01 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and the episode "]" (2021) of '']''.<ref name="sees02e07">{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=Jonathon |date=2021-10-08 |title=See season 2, episode 7 recap – "The Queen's Speech" |url=https://readysteadycut.com/2021/10/08/see-season-2-episode-7-recap-the-queens-speech/ |accessdate=2021-09-06 |work=Ready Steady Cut}}</ref>
*]'s 2017 novel '']'' references the poem a number of times.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Green > Quotes > Quotable Quote |url=https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8882226-you-know-that-part-of-yeats-s-the-second-coming-where |access-date=23 Dec 2023 |website=Goodreads}}</ref>
* The titles of two tracks from the 2018 album ] by American electronic artist ], "Mere Anarchy" and "The Ceremony of Innocence" are taken directly from the poem, while the track "The Middle is gone" reflects the phrase "... the centre cannot hold."<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=27 Feb 2018 | title=Moby says new album explores 'who we are as a species'
|url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/moby-says-album-explores-apos-151530255.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKCQfIsgCBM8BreHVXKqn3eJQ9k22cu5wvWKDRRQBIEMcQRVJYtvyy1niEK8pzJui0qh0nu3SKklNFVuhFca8-598Gk0EOLOOYSvFdUBcF_aeaHmHtY59DOyvJEtOt9uvWO7OAJjKuxgx-dRd6nAy2ZjBxhTz6zo5LDMhbqbDX2B/ |access-date=23 May 2024 |magazine=Yahoo Entertainment}}</ref>
*Irish musician ] references the poem in his song "NFWMB" from his 2018 EP ''Nina Cried Power.''<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=5 May 2019 |title=Hozier Knows the World Is Ending, So He Wrote Apocalyptic Love Songs For 'Wasteland, Baby!' |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/hozier-wasteland-baby-interview-8500815/ |access-date=4 April 2023 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref>
*The title of ]'s 2019 album '']'' and the track of the same name are derived from Yeats's poem.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |date=2019-08-15 |title=Sleater-Kinney: The Centre Won't Hold review – fighting death with sex |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/15/sleater-kinney-the-centre-wont-hold-album-review |access-date=2024-02-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
*The season finale of the ] series ] (2020)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian |date=2020-05-30 |title='Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/30/things-fall-apart-the-apocalyptic-appeal-of-wb-yeats-the-second-coming |access-date=2024-02-01 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
*]'s soundtrack to '']'' (2021) features a song titled "The Center Will Not Hold, Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep", referencing the "second coming" of ] after his death in the film's prequel, '']'', and his subsequent resurrection in this film.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/zack-snyders-justice-league-soundtrack-date-track-list-9539555/|title='Zack Snyder's Justice League' Soundtrack Is the 'Mount Everest of Scores': See Release Date & Track List|first=Heran|last=Mamo|magazine=] |date=12 March 2021}}</ref>
*The episode "]" (S02E07) of the ] ] series '']'' (2021)<ref name="sees02e07">{{cite web |url=https://readysteadycut.com/2021/10/08/see-season-2-episode-7-recap-the-queens-speech/ |title=See season 2, episode 7 recap – "The Queen's Speech" |first=Jonathon |last=Wilson |date=2021-10-08 |accessdate=2021-09-06 |work=Ready Steady Cut }}</ref>
*The title of the BBC podcast series ''Things Fell Apart'' (2021) by ]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/13/things-fell-apart-jon-ronson-review-doomsday-watch-with-arhur-snell-5-live-breakfast-rick-eddwards-rachel-burden-nicky-campbell |title =The week in audio: Things Fell Apart; Doomsday Watch; 5 live Breakfast |website = ] |date=2021-11-13 |first=Miranda |last=Sawyer }}</ref>
*Economic historian ] references the phrase "Slouches towards Bethlehem" in the title of his 2022 book ''Slouching Towards Utopia''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://econofact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/EFChats-Transcript-EFChats-The-Long-20th-Century-Material-Progress-Rising-Inequality-and-the-Elusive-Utopia.pdf|title=EconoFact Chats - The Long 20th Century: Material Progress, Rising Inequality, and the Elusive Utopia|author=J. Bradford DeLong|location=University of California at Berkeley|date=26 February 2023|website=Econofact.org|access-date=2023-06-10}}</ref>
*The 2024 ] drama '']'' referenced and quoted the poem, during its depiction of the collapse of civil society in Wales following a riot in ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Xan |title=‘Destroying your home town is quite satisfying’: inside Michael Sheen’s explosive Welsh revolution thriller |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/02/destroying-your-home-town-is-quite-satisfying-inside-michael-sheens-explosive-welsh-revolution-thriller |website=] |access-date=4 March 2024 |date=2 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Chesterton |first1=George |title=The Way on BBC One review: Michael Sheen's directing debut ruins a good idea with cliché and stereotype |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-way-bbc-one-review-michael-sheen-b1139373.html |website=] |access-date=4 March 2024 |date=19 February 2024}}</ref>


==References== ==References==
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==External links== ==External links==
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* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-b-yeats/poetry|name=The collected public domain poetry of Yeats as an eBook|noitalics=true}}
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* {{YouTube|id=66Mg2MhuOBI|title=''Nixon'' (film) – The Second Coming}}


{{W. B. Yeats}} {{W. B. Yeats}}

Latest revision as of 14:44, 23 December 2024

1919 poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats

The Second Coming
by W. B. Yeats
Written1919
First published inThe Dial
CountryIreland
LanguageEnglish
FormLyric poetry
Publication date1920
Media typePrint
Lines22
Full text
The Second Coming (Yeats) at Wikisource
The Second Coming Recitation
Problems playing this file? See media help. The Second Coming

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?

“The Second Coming” is a poem written by Irish poet William Butler Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920 and included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to describe allegorically the atmosphere of post-war Europe. It is considered a canonical work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.

Historical context

The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War and the beginning of the Irish War of Independence in January 1919, which followed the Easter Rising in April 1916, and before the British government had decided to send in the Black and Tans to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.

Yeats′s cosmology is laid out in his book A Vision, where he explained his views on history and how it informed his poetry. Yeats saw human history as a series of epochs, what he called "gyres." He saw the age of classical antiquity as beginning with the Trojan War and then that thousand year cycle was overtaken by the Christian era, which is coming to a close. And that is the basis of the final line of the poem: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

The poem is also connected to the 1918–1919 flu pandemic. In the weeks preceding Yeats′s writing of the poem, his pregnant wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, caught the virus and was very close to death, but she survived. The highest death rates of the pandemic were among pregnant women, who in some areas had a death rate of up to 70%. Yeats wrote the poem while his wife was convalescing.

Critical engagement

In 2009, David A. Ross identified "The Second Coming" as "one of the most famous poems in the English language," echoing Harold Bloom who, in 1986, cited the piece as "one of the most universally admired poems of our century."

Critics agree that the poetry of Percy Shelley had a strong influence on the drafting of "The Second Coming." The first stanza matches the tone, diction, and syntax of Prometheus Unbound. Both Harold Bloom and Jon Stallworthy speculate that the poem's sphinx draws off the imagery of Shelley's Ozymandias.

Critics have also argued that "The Second Coming" describes what Yeats elsewhere called an "antithetical dispensation" to the age ushered in by the birth of Jesus Christ. Richard Ellmann understood the "rough beast" of the final lines as a creature to be born itself in Bethlehem, marking the cyclical (and violent) overturning of an age. Giorgio Melchiori identified this same idea in Yeats' other writings, noting that

"(1) by 1896 Yeats had already some inkling of the cyclical theory of history which he was later to develop and expound in A Vision; (2) The Trojan war, the birth of Christ, and an indefinite event due to happen in our century were already considered by him as three fundamental crises in world history, each of which reverse the established order and ushered in a new cycle of civilization . . ."

Cultural influences

Titles

Phrases in the poem have been adopted as the title in a variety of media. The words "things fall apart" in the third line are alluded to by Chinua Achebe in his novel Things Fall Apart (1958), The Roots in their album Things Fall Apart (1999), and Jon Ronson in his podcast series Things Fell Apart (2021).

Similarly, the words "the centre cannot hold" in the same line are used in the title of Elyn Saks' book about her experience with schizophrenia while obtaining her PhD at Oxford, and later her JD at Yale, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (2008), Jonathan Alter's book on U.S. President Barack Obama's first term, The Center Holds (2013), the Netflix biographical documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017), Sleater-Kinney's album The Center Won't Hold (2019), and Junkie XL's song "The Center Will Not Hold, Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep" in the film Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021).

Additionally, the phrase "slouches towards Bethlehem" in the last line is referenced in the title of Joan Didion's collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), Joni Mitchell's musical adaptation of the poem "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1991), Robert Bork's non-fiction work Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996), Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster’s interactive fiction game Slouching Towards Bedlam (2003), and Brad DeLong's economic history Slouching Towards Utopia (2022).

Other works whose titles come from lines in the poem includes Walker Percy’s novel The Second Coming (1980), Robert B. Parker's novel The Widening Gyre (1983), and multiple songs in Moby's album Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt (2018).

Quotes

The poem is quoted extensively in a number of books, including Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s political manifesto The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (1949), and Stephen King's novel The Stand (1978).

It is also quoted extensively in numerous films and TV shows, including the episode "Revelations" (1994) of Babylon 5, the director's cut of Nixon (1995), multiple episodes including "The Second Coming" (2007) of The Sopranos, the last episode of Devs (2020), and the episode "The Queen's Speech" (2021) of See.

References

  1. ^ Lynskey, Dorian (30 May 2020). "'Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  2. Albright, Daniel (1997), Quantum Poetics: Yeats's figures as reflections in Water (PDF), Cambridge University Press, p. 35.
  3. Childs, Peter (2007). Modernism. The New Critical Idiom (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-41541546-0.
  4. Haughey, Jim (2002). The First World War in Irish Poetry. Bucknell University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-61148151-8.
  5. Deane, Seamus (1998). "Boredom and Apocalypse". Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing Since 1790. Clarendon lectures in English literature. Clarendon Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-19818490-4.
  6. Onion, Rebecca (3 May 2020). "The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint?". Slate. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  7. Ross, David A. (2009). Critical companion to William Butler Yeats: a literary reference to his life and work. New York: Facts On File. p. 219. ISBN 9780816058952.
  8. ^ Bloom, Harold, ed. (1986). "Introduction". William Butler Yeats. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. p. 9-11. ISBN 0877547009.
  9. ^ Stallworthy, Jon (1963). Between the Lines: Yeats's Poetry in the Making. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 22-23. ISBN 0198116012.
  10. Bornstein, George (1970). Yeats and Shelley. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. p. 201. ISBN 0226066452.
  11. Henn, T. R. (1965). The Lonely Tower: Studies in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats (Second ed.). Fakenham: Cox and Wyman Ltd. p. 131, 151-153. ISBN 0415500605.
  12. Yeats, W. B.; Harper, George Mills; Hood, Walter Kelly (1978). A critical edition of Yeats's A vision (1925). London: Macmillan. p. 262-263. ISBN 0333212991.
  13. Ellmann, Richard (1964). The Identity of Yeats (Reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 260. ISBN 0195007123.
  14. Melchiori, Giorgio (1979). The whole mystery of art. Pattern into poetry of the work of W. B. Yeats (Reprinted ed.). Westport: Greenwood P. p. 85. ISBN 0837167191.
  15. Banerji, Atreyi (7 February 2021). "The story behind The Roots' 'Things Fall Apart' album cover". Far Out.
  16. Sawyer, Miranda (13 November 2021). "The week in audio: Things Fell Apart; Doomsday Watch; 5 live Breakfast". The Guardian.
  17. Saks, Elyn R. (2007). The center cannot hold: my journey through madness. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-0138-5. OCLC 148726600.
  18. Diedrick, James (26 September 2015). "The Center Cannot Hold VS The Center Holds". Jamesdiedrick.agnesscott.org.
  19. Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (15 August 2019). "Sleater-Kinney: The Centre Won't Hold review – fighting death with sex". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  20. Mamo, Heran (12 March 2021). "'Zack Snyder's Justice League' Soundtrack Is the 'Mount Everest of Scores': See Release Date & Track List". Billboard.
  21. Whitesell, Lloyd (2008). The Music of Joni Mitchell. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-530757-3.
  22. Chetcuti, Clara (3 May 2020). "Electronic Literature, or Whatever It's Called Now: the Archive and the Field". Electronic Book Review.
  23. Matthews, Dylan (7 September 2022). "Humanity was stagnant for millennia — then something big changed 150 years ago". Vox. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  24. Brown, Eric Renner (27 February 2018). "Moby says new album explores 'who we are as a species'". Yahoo Entertainment. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  25. Spark, Clare L. "Arthur Schlesinger's Missing Vital Center". History News Network. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  26. Guffey, Ensley F.; Dale Koontz, K. (19 September 2017). A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5. ECW Press. ISBN 9781773050508.
  27. Williams, Tony (2 September 2014). "Nixon – Oliver Stone's Rough Beast Slouching". Film International.
  28. Lavery, David; Howard, Douglas L.; Levinson, Paul, eds. (2011). The Essential Sopranos Reader. University Press of Kentucky. p. 75.
  29. Lynskey, Dorian (30 May 2020). "'Things fall apart': the apocalyptic appeal of WB Yeats's The Second Coming,". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  30. Wilson, Jonathon (8 October 2021). "See season 2, episode 7 recap – "The Queen's Speech"". Ready Steady Cut. Retrieved 6 September 2021.

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