The Second Coming Summary, Analysis & Themes (W.B. Yeats) — DSC-13 Notes

Notes for Unit 1B (ii): “The Second Coming” from DSC-13: Twentieth Century Poetry & Drama, B.A. (Hons.) English, Semester 5 — Delhi University. Useful for exam preparation, class tests, and quick revision.

Written by William Butler Yeats in 1919 and first published in 1920, “The Second Coming” is one of the most quoted poems of the twentieth century. In just 22 lines of free verse, Yeats captures the anxiety of a civilisation that feels like it is coming apart — a mood shaped directly by the aftermath of the First World War, the Irish War of Independence, and the Russian Revolution.

This post covers the full poem text, a line-by-line explanation, a plain-language summary, themes, poetic devices, critical perspectives, a comparative study with “Leda and the Swan”, and previous year exam questions.

The Second Coming — Full Poem Text

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.

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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?

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(Public domain — first published in The Dial, 1920)

The Second Coming — Line-by-Line Explanation

Lines 1–2: The poem opens with a falcon spiralling outward in ever-widening circles (“gyre”) until it can no longer hear its trainer’s call. This is Yeats’s central image for a world that has drifted too far from order and guidance to be brought back.

Lines 3–4: The famous declaration “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” states directly that the structures holding society together — political, moral, religious — are collapsing. “Mere anarchy” suggests chaos in its rawest form has been unleashed.

Lines 5–6: A “blood-dimmed tide” evokes the literal bloodshed of the First World War, so overwhelming that it drowns “the ceremony of innocence” — the rituals, values, and decencies that once held civilised life together.

Lines 7–8: A bitter observation on leadership and public life: good, thoughtful people have lost confidence and stay silent, while extremists and fanatics act with total conviction. Many readers connect this line to the rise of political extremism after WWI.

Lines 9–11: The speaker senses that something enormous is about to happen — a “revelation,” which he names, almost involuntarily, as “the Second Coming.”

Lines 12–17: Instead of Christ returning as Christian prophecy promises, the speaker is struck by a vision from Spiritus Mundi (Latin for “spirit of the world,” Yeats’s term for a shared collective consciousness). He sees a sphinx-like creature — lion’s body, man’s head — moving through the desert, its gaze as “blank and pitiless as the sun.” Desert birds circle it in agitation.

Lines 18–20: The vision fades (“the darkness drops again”), but the speaker now understands that two thousand years of relative stability (since the birth of Christ) have been shaken awake — “vexed to nightmare” — by this new force stirring in its “rocking cradle.”

Lines 21–22: The poem ends on an unanswered, unsettling question: what monstrous new power, its time finally arrived, is dragging itself toward Bethlehem to be born? Unlike the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, this “birth” promises not salvation but menace.

The Second Coming — Summary

William Butler Yeats’s poem, written in 1919, expresses his fear that society was disintegrating — a fear shaped by the horrors of the First World War and the chaos of the Russian Revolution. The poem is built around ideas of disorder, prophecy, and the belief that history moves in repeating cycles.

The first stanza pictures the world spinning out of control. Yeats’s central image is the “gyre” — a widening spiral — through which he shows history breaking down: old structures are ending, and what comes next feels frightening rather than hopeful. The line “the centre cannot hold” captures a civilisation losing its ability to hold itself together.

The second stanza shifts to prophecy. Yeats imagines a “rough beast” moving toward Bethlehem to be born — not the peaceful return of Christ that the poem’s title seems to promise, but a violent, amoral new power. This is Yeats’s twist on the Christian idea of the Second Coming: instead of salvation, the birth signals the collapse of the old moral order and the arrival of something dark and uncontrollable.

The poem closes on unresolved dread — the “rough beast” is heading toward an unknown fate, and the reader is left to imagine what kind of world this new force will create. In short, “The Second Coming” offers a bleak vision of an ending era and a frightening, uncertain one about to begin.

Themes in The Second Coming

• Destruction and Chaos — the poem dramatises the end of one historical age and the disintegration of the structures that held society together.
• Prophecy and Warning — Yeats presents a visionary glimpse of a menacing future figure as an omen of the times ahead.
• Cyclical View of History — central to Yeats’s own philosophy (later elaborated in his prose work A Vision), the poem reflects his belief that history moves in repeating gyres rather than a straight line of progress.
• Loss of Moral Authority — the line about the best lacking conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity is often read as commentary on political extremism and weak leadership.

Poetic Devices and Techniques

• Imagery: Disturbing, visceral images — “blood-dimmed tide,” “rough beast” — create an atmosphere of dread and inevitability.
• Symbolism: The “widening gyre” stands for the loss of order; the “rough beast” symbolises a new, threatening force replacing the old moral order.
• Metaphor: The falcon and falconer represent the broken relationship between people and the values that once guided them.
• Allusion: The poem draws heavily on the biblical Book of Revelation and Christian eschatology, deliberately subverting it.
• Free Verse with Loose Iambic Pentameter: The poem is not strictly metred — its irregular rhythm mirrors the very chaos it describes.

The Second Coming (Poem) Analysis

Structure and Form

“The Second Coming” is written in free verse with a loosely iambic pulse rather than a fixed rhyme scheme. It falls into two movements: the first presents the current chaos of the world; the second offers a prophetic vision of what is coming.

Imagery and Symbolism

Themes of Destruction and Chaos

Yeats reflects on how history repeats itself and how societies decay before being reborn. The poem’s preoccupation with destruction and chaos reflects both his personal anxieties about the future and his broader theory of cyclical history.

Critical Perspectives

Historical and Political Context

“The Second Coming” was written in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, during a period of major political and social upheaval — including the Russian Revolution and Ireland’s own war of independence. The poem channels the widespread disillusionment and sense of impending disaster that many felt in this period.

Reception and Impact

The poem is widely regarded as one of the defining texts of literary Modernism and remains one of Yeats’s most frequently quoted and anthologised works. Its phrases — “things fall apart,” “the centre cannot hold,” “slouching towards Bethlehem” — have entered common cultural and political usage well beyond literary criticism. You can read more on the poem’s background at Poetry Foundation and Britannica’s entry on W.B. Yeats.

Scholarly Interpretations

Scholars have approached the poem from multiple angles — its historical context, its dense symbolism and imagery, and its place within Yeats’s broader theory of historical cycles as developed in A Vision. It continues to be a widely studied and debated text in Modernist poetry courses.

Comparative Study: The Second Coming vs Leda and the Swan

(See full notes: Leda and the Swan Summary)

Yeats’s Evolution as a Poet

Yeats’s early poetry drew heavily on Romanticism and Irish mythology. His later work — including both “The Second Coming” and “Leda and the Swan” — shows a deeper engagement with history, myth, and the modern world, marked by richer symbolism and increasingly universal themes.

DU Previous Year Exam Questions (DSC-13, Unit 1B)

Based on recurring question patterns for “The Second Coming” in DU DSC-13 papers and internal assessments.

1. Discuss “The Second Coming” as a reflection of the socio-political anxieties of the post-World War I period.
2. Explain the symbolism of the “widening gyre” and the “rough beast” in the poem.
3. How does Yeats use Christian imagery in the poem, and how does he subvert it?
4. Critically analyse the significance of the closing question, “what rough beast… Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
5. Comment on Yeats’s use of “Spiritus Mundi” and its role in the poem’s vision.
6. Compare the treatment of power and historical change in “The Second Coming” and “Leda and the Swan.”
7. Write a short note on the poem’s structure and versification.

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