I found reading the "Second Coming" by Yeats very interesting. Upon first reading the title of this poem I had the mind to believe it would be about the second coming of Christ. I do believe thats what everyone believed when reading the title. Once reading the poem, however, it takes a different turn. It is in fact, not at all talking about the second coming of Christ, from what I can tell. I know we threw ideas around and talked at first about it being about the second coming of Christ because it does talk about the beast and then Bethlehem. Considering that Yeats was an atheist, I can only think that he was not referring to Christ's return. By these following words: "A shape with lion body and the head of a man...And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" we came to the assumption that the beast was a sphinx. I guess, as i said in my comment of Ajackson's post "The End??" why does the sphinx go to Bethlehem? There has to be some meaning behind that. Also, what does it mean when Yeat's says "Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Does that mean that this beast is truly being born again or does this mean waking up for the first time in such a long time? These are just some questions that I have been wondering about.
P.s I commented on Ajackson's post "The End??"
>>It is in fact, not at all talking about the second coming of Christ, from what I can tell.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you for this reason: Yeats wasn't a Christian. He cleary doesn't use Christ's Second Coming in a literal sense; instead, he uses it as symbolism for something else (something I touch on in my blog post).
Ok so I felt exactly the same way about this poem as well! It seemed as if every time I came to some conclusion about it...I would reread it and suddenly change my whole idea. I had some of the same questions you do but after our discussion in class I do think that he doesnt use the second coming of Christ in a directly literal way.
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