The poem begins with the image of a falcon flying out of
control. Do you know what
falconry is? Describe it. Yeats
is using this image from falconry to suggest the situation of
the modern world. In what ways do you think the modern world is
like the distant, circling falcon? Can you give a specific
examples of the 'things [that] fall apart"?
This poem is heavy with allusions to the Bible and Yeats' own
world views. To fully understand it, you need to read the
Text with Annotations. BUT
before doing that, please read
the poem out loud and feel tone of the speaker (e.g. the
repetitions, exclamation and question at the
end).
After you've read the annotations, do you know what
the Second Coming
is? Is the Second Coming that Yeats expects the same as the
Christian idea of the Second Coming?
What vision does the speaker of the poem have? How does he
respond to that vision?
Can you explain in your own words what the speaker comes to know
in lines 19 and 20?
Explain the last two lines.
What
does Yeats suggest about the modern world in this poem?
Application & Wild Association
Yeats wrote this poem in 1919, after the experience of World War
I as well as other wars and human atrocities. Do you think the
situation of the world today is as bad as
lines 3-8 suggest?
Singer Joni Mitchell turns the poem into a song "Slouching
Towards Bethlehem." Does the
two convey the same feelings about the modern world? Which do
you like better?
Do you want to see another reproduction of
Yeats' "Second "Coming"?
As a lively example of how famous the poem is, this page
"reproduces" the poem by using titles from various books.
