W.B. Yeats' “The Second Coming” Compared to Romantic Themes

W.B. Yeats poem “The Second Coming” ability to speak about the shift in society and literature following the World War I made this poem be well-known and socially shocking. The poem contains imagery and usage of grim wording which makes these poem stand out when compared to poetry in the Romantic period.

Many of the elements in the poem “The Second Coming” differ from poetry from writers such William Wordsworth from the Romantic period, where the main focus is nature and serenity. “The Second Coming” is dark and chaotic. The change in mood and the prevalence of nature and lack of it is one of the differing elements that make the poem contrasting to the Romantic period. The main focus in “The Second Coming” is to offer the audience a metaphoric way to tell them that humanity will be ending soon. This is an understandable perspective from a writer at the time of the war as people are dealing with grief and political indifferences. During this time, death was very prevalent which causes a shift in how people viewed the end of the world.

The poem has a strong focus on Christianity and religion to portray the metaphoric meaning to the audience. This is very different when compared to literature in the Romantic period where religion is not a central focus to many writers as they were attempting to have new and modern ideas that were not traditional.

The poem uses metaphors and imagery to portray this idea of the world ending in a poem. In the beginning of the poem, W.B Yeats use the second line to suggest the world has lost control. In the article “The Second Coming”, by James Howard, the author stated “The “falconer,” representing humanity’s attempt to control its world, has lost its “falcon” in the turning “gyre” (the gyre is an image Yeats uses to symbolize grand, sweeping historical movements as a kind of spiral). These first lines could also suggest how the modern world has distanced people from nature (represented here by the falcon). In any case, it’s clear that whatever connection once linked the metaphorical falcon and falconer has broken, and now the human world is spiraling into chaos.”