I'm just going to focus on the first stanza, momentarily forgetting whether or not this poem is about the second coming of Jesus or WW1.
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer."
These first two lines immediately reminded me of the parable of the True Shepherd.
"The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." (John 10:2-4 NIV)
Yeats is saying that in the midst of the chaos of war Christians felt lost and out of touch with God. Like a falcon who could not hear directions from his master and didn't know which way to go or sheep without their shepherd, they forgot to put their trust in the True Shepherd. They lost sight of hope and neglected the One who gives us hope in times of trouble. But we don't have to be in the middle of World War to feel distant from God. It happens to all Christians during trying times in our own lives. We turn to other things to fill the void when we feel like God is silent, and this is when "things fall apart" and we experience "mere anarchy". But if we remain still long enough, we can hear the shepherd's soft whisper of encouraging words, guiding us through the gyre and back to safe ground.
-Tori Burger
Commented on Bethan's "Yeats gives me the eats"
I think it's so interesting that we see so much of the Christian struggle here in a poem by someone who is decidedly not Christian at all. I think Yeats did feel the fall of man, the inadequacy of "mere anarchy''. Maybe that's the power of great poetry- that it does speak to humanity, that maybe there is something in all of us that does feel separate from God even if we don't all acknowledge it in the Christian sense.
ReplyDeleteI just love the image of our souls as the falcon and God as the falconer. If it is true that 'the falcon cannot hear the falconer', what are the connotations of that? It would mean the failure of God as a falconer, and the falcon. As if we have the power to go far away enough to lose our master, or our master could ever lose us.
ReplyDeleteI found the comparison of men to falcons and God to the falconer intruiging. Yeats wasn't Christian, but as Mallory said, identified the struggle many Christains face. Actually, all of mankind struggles with it, but only Christians recognize the loss of the guiding Voice. When Christians are consumed by the chaos of the gyre they allow themselves to be blown farther and farther away from the falconer. However, Danielle, I don't think portraying God as the falconer implys a failure on His part. I think that if the falcon got lost in the gyre and couldn't hear his master, it would be because he was no longer listening for the Master's voice; he was listening to the wind instead. The falcon has the ability to stop listening, but the falconer never loses the power to call to his sheep. Oops, mixed up analogies... you know what I mean. :)
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