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READ THIS
The poet wrote this poem shortly after the conclusion of what was termed "the Great
War" or First World War. He had witnessed the destruction caused by the war: destruction
not only of property but also of people and customs. Kings and Emperors were being deposed
while in Russia the October Revolution had seen the triumph of Communism.
The poet sees this collapse as an indication of the coming of the end times. This is not the end
of the world in the Christian world view but rather the end of the Age of Pisces and the dawning
of the Age of Aquarius, with all the changes in society that this will bring about.
To understand this, perhaps you should read the note below and then read the note in the next
worksheets.
NOTE ON THE POEM
Be prepared:
1. This is a very challenging poem;
2. It is probable that neither your teacher nor your examiner will have understood it all that well
either -- so be careful how you word your answers!
Yeats, after a Protestant upbringing, had felt his world challenged by the Catholic dominated
Ireland in which he lived. Eventually he moved away from orthodox Christianity altogether and
entered a world of spiritualism, mysticism, astrology and the occult. He became deeply involved
in schools of theosophy which dabbled deeply in oriental mysticism.
He wrote this poem in 1919, and it was published in 1920. The world had just witnessed the
devastation of what was then termed the Great War" -- today referred to as the First
World War -- a war which had brought unparalleled destruction and loss of life.
There were many who predicted that this war would be the end of the world as we know it.
Indeed, the belief was widespread that this war would mark the end of the Western Civilization
itself.
The poem is therefore full of images of destruction: things falling apart, the natural world no
longer functioning properly, anarchy everywhere, an ocean of blood, loss of innocence, loss of
belief, etc.
But through all of this is a fundamental belief in the two thousand year cycles that are commonly
called "Ages" or "Aeons". Ancient Egypt was at its peak during the Age of
Taurus, the Jewish state reached a golden age during the Age of Aries, Christianity came about
and flourished during the Age of Pisces. We today are at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
Yeats, through his mysticism and theosophy, would have been well-versed in this idea of the
Cycle of the Ages and it is absolutely impossible to understand this poem without a rudimentary
knowledge of it.
Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. He died in France in 1939 and was
buried in that country.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer."
- What is meant by "the widening gyre"? Why would the falcon be "turning and
turning" within this gyre? (2)
[Need help?]
In its simplest terms, a "gyre" is a spinning coil or circle. The falcon is flying in ever
increasing circles above the head of the falconer, and so the "gyre" or circle of its flight
is widening.
Actually, the poet means much more than this but let's not go into it for now.
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- What is so strange about the idea that "the falcon cannot hear the
falconer"? (3)
[Need help?]
Traditionally in falconry, the falcon is always obedient to the falconer, responding to his every
call. In this poem, however, the falcon is no longer obedient, no longer listens to the commands
of the falconer. In fact, the poet says that the falcon "cannot hear the falconer", which
indicates that something very serious has gone wrong. It is not just disobedience but an
inability to respond any more.
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"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."
- Armed with the knowledge that this poem was written shortly after the conclusion of what
was then termed "the Great War" -- 1st World War -- what does the poet mean in
these four lines? (3)
[Need help?]
The poet is pointing out that the whole world is falling apart, isn't he? The Great War was such
a savage one, the likes of which had never before been witnessed among civilized nations: the
incredible bloodshed and destruction as if civilization itself were collapsing.
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[Need help?]
Anarchy is the state of total lawlessness, where people, institutions or states do whatever they
please without any consideration for others. It is a situation of total chaos.
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- Why does the poet claim that "the ceremony of innocence is
drowned"? (4)
[Need help?]
Once the Great War was over, the poet says, nobody could be innocent any more. So many
young people -- people who up till then should still have been innocent -- had been killed or
had themselves killed someone. Even the young women had been deeply involved in the war
-- manufacturing bombs or losing their innocence through sexual relations with soldiers whom
they did not want to see die as virgins -- that few could still be said to be innocent once the war
was over.
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"Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!"
- What is meant by a "revelation"? (3)
[Need help?]
A revelation in its simplest meaning is a revealing of some great event or the understanding of
something important. The term is also used very much with a biblical meaning: the foreseeing
of some major religious happening in the future -- as in the New Testament's Book of
Revelations.
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- What is usually meant by the term "the Second Coming"? (2)
[Need help?]
The term "the Second Coming" is usually applied to the Christian belief that Jesus Christ
-- who "came" the first time when he was born -- would come again at the end of time
to judge the world. It is therefore a term which is synonymous with the end of time.
But do you think the poet actually uses the term in a Christian sense?
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"Somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun."
- What do we call this beast with a lion's body and the head of a man? (2)
[Need help?]
This is, of course, a reference to the great Sphinx which is the massive monument carved out
of rock that lies before the pyramids of Giza in Egypt -- and always looking east into the rising
sun. It has a lion's body and probably initially also had the face of a lion until some destructive
Pharaoh ordered that his own face be carved onto it.
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"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
- What is the significance of "Bethlehem"? (2)
[Need help?]
Bethlehem was where Jesus Christ was supposed to have been born, and so it is thought that
the Second Coming would also happen at Bethlehem.
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- Does the poet portray a usual scene at Bethlehem or has he changed something
here? (4)
[Need help?]
The usual scene at Bethlehem is for the baby Jesus to be lying in a manger, surrounded by a
group of animals -- cows, sheep, etc. The poet, however, changes all this. It is not the baby
Jesus in this scene but a "rough beast" which "slouches" into the picture.
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