M. Butterfly Essay

Submitted By Hadynski21
Words: 1039
Pages: 5

William Butler Yeats who wrote “The Second Coming” was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865. Yeats was the son of John Butler Yeats who was a famous Irish painter. When Yeats was a child he would spend his childhood in County Sligo, which is in London and where both of his parents were raised. When Yeats was fifteen he wanted to continue his education and the study of painting back in home town Dublin, but he seen discovered his love for poetry. “In the aftermath of the First World War William Butler Yeats wrote a poem called "The Second Coming" (Vol. 14 Issue 1) in 1919 and in November of 1920 the very first copy was printed. Yeats would then add this poem to his collection called Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921. This poem is probably one of the best ones I have ever read. If you read this poem carefully and you are a Christian and a believer in the one and only God you will love this poem. The poem was based on Christian imagery from the Holy Bible that talks about the Apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus, this relates to the atmosphere of the post-war in Europe. The poem “The Second Coming” is considered one of Yeats most famous poems in world history. This poem is so famous that people would consider it to be a major work of Modernist poetry and in collections like The Norton Anthology on Modernist Poetry have reprinted this poem several times. Yeats was considered a master of the visual symbol. When you read this poem you might want to consider thinking about the emotional element and the symbols that drive this emotional element. Yeats talks about “The Second Coming” like it a free verse that has heavy frequent stresses because the imagery is very stunning and violent and the language terrifying. Even though this is one of Yeats most famous poems it is also one of the most difficult poems to understand. I think it is safe to say that that even the people who love this poem and have read it over and over again could not paraphrase the whole meaning of it. In the first stanza it says “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” (Vol. 14 Issue 1) which I think is talking about the world. It describes the conditions in the present world today for example anarchy, the war that is going on, people killing people for no reason, and the shootings in all the schools. With all this happening in the world it is bound to “fall apart” like it is talked about in the first stanza. Yeats then talks about how the world is falling apart and that the “second coming” is bound to happen. When he talks about the second coming I think he means that Jesus is going to be coming back to the Earth to save us all and determine who is going to heaven and hell. In the Bible it says "Let not your heart be troubled. You are trusting God, now trust in Me. There are many homes up there where my Father lives and I am going to prepare them for your coming. When everything is ready, then I will come and get you, so that you can always be with Me where I am. If this weren't so, I would tell you plainly. And you know where I am going and how to get there." (John 14: 1-3). “The Second Coming” Yeats wrote had a lot of biblical references all throughout his poem. When Yeats wrote “widening gyre” it was really talking about an angel who “opened an abyss.” (Revelation 9:2). Yeats talks about how the world is in chaos when he says "falcon cannot hear the falconer, anarchy, innocence drowned, best lack all conviction, blood- dimmed tide, and passionate intensity.” In (Rev. 8). It talks about how God punished the Egyptians by turning the water into blood just like Yeats