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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"
- In an earlier worsheet, a "gyre" was defined as a "spinning coil or circle".
What, do you think, does the poet mean by the word? (4)
[Need help?]
In its simple version, the gyre represents the passing of time. However, you cannot actually
know the full answer to this question without studying some other works by Yeats. He himself
described the "gyre" as two cones, one inside the other and each spinning. These gyres
represent the passing of the Ages or Aeons.
There are twelve Aeons or Ages, each lasting just over two thousand years. At about the time
that Jesus Christ was born, they were just entering into the Age of Pisces the Fish. Today we
are at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius the Waterbearer.
Somehow this two-fold spinning of time -- the twenty-four hour spin that gives us night and
day, as well as the two thousand year precessional spin which gives us the Aeons or Ages --
is what Yeats meant by "gyres". It is a spin within a spin, a precessional spin within a natural
spin. It is these gyres which mark the passage of time -- days and night -- as well as marking
the passing of the Aeons.
If you are puzzled by this, then go to the next worksheet and read the notes in the left column
which will give you a fuller explanation.
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- In connection with the "gyre", why do things fall apart? Why can the centre not
hold? (4)
[Need help?]
Yeats believed that things would "fall apart" at the end of each of the Ages.
The time of Jesus marked the end of the Age of Aries and the dawn of the Age of Pisces. It
was then that the Jewish world began to fall apart and it was the dawning of the Age of
Christianity.
Today we have reached the end of the Age of Pisces and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
Things again fall apart. For Yeats, it is the end of the Christian era. And the catastrophe of the
Great War -- the First World War -- with its unparalleled violence and destruction was
symbolic of this falling apart.
As the Age reaches its end, the centre cannot hold. It is almost as if the centrifugal force of the
spinning of the gyres causes everything to spin out of control.
For exam purposes, however, it is probably safe to dwell upon the catastrophe and destruction
of the Great War, a war of unparalleled bloodshed. Your examiner may not know the poet's
real message of the falling apart at the end of the Aeon or Age.
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A recent exam paper stated that Yeats presents here a most pessimistic view of the world.
- Consider things like imagery, word choice and rhythm in the poem to show how this is true.
Why do you think it is true? (10)
[Need help?]
To answer this question, you would need to dwell upon the destruction of the Great War. All
previous wars had always exhibited contained violence, army against army violence and not
wholesale destruction. The Great War was the first of the universal wars -- which is why the
contemporaries called it the "Great War".
Yeats uses the term "anarchy" to describe these times. He speaks of "the
blood-dimmed tide", the drowned innocence. He uses the term "things fall apart",
the falconer losing control of his falcon. You would need to examine each of these images in
order to answer this question properly.
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Why, do you think, does the poet use the image of the "falcon" and the
"falconer"? (6)
[Need help?]
The falconer and his falcon are symbolic of order in the universe. The falcon is always there
to carry out the orders of the falconer unquestioningly. "The falcon cannot hear the
falconer," the poet says. It is not simply a case of the falcon refusing to obey the falconer.
It cannot hear the falconer. Something unprecedented is happening, says the poet.
In another sense, the old order is collapsing. The falconer represents nobility, and the falcon
is there to do his bidding. One could therefore imply that the falcon represents the mass of the
common people. At the end of this Age or Aeon, the common people are rising up against their
rulers as with the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Anarchy is happening. But it isn't just disobedience, says the poet. Somehow the link between
order and the people has broken. The people are looking for guidance -- the falcon is flying
in ever widening circles trying to find the falconer -- but they just cannot see order any more,
just as the falcon can no longer hear the falconer.
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"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
- Why does he speak of "mere anarchy"? (4)
[Need help?]
The term "mere anarchy" might mean that "pure anarchy" or "only anarchy"
is loosed upon the world. It is also a very "matter-of-fact" description of the outpouring of
anarchy or the onset of anarchy.
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"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned."
- Comment on the significance of "the blood-dimmed tide is
loosed". (4)
[Need help?]
Here Yeats uses the metaphor of the ocean. The ocean tides rise and fall, and this marks the
passing of time. The Great War saw the rising of the high tide of destruction. The ocean's
waters are red with the blood of the slaughter of the innocent.
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- What do you think the poet means when he says "everywhere the ceremony of
innocence is drowned"? (4)
[Need help?]
In a sense, it is the "ceremony of innocence" which marks our entry into the
world -- for each and every one of us. Each culture has its ceremonies of innocence. The
Christians have baptism. Even marriage is a ceremony of innocence, where the bride wears
white to show her purity and her innocence.
The Great War, says the poet, changed all this. Everywhere the young men -- the innocent
men -- were being slaughtered. The young men were also doing the slaughtering. Their
innocence was being drowned in an ocean of blood.
The young and innocent women too were losing their innocence. The women were being
forced to go out and work in the armaments factories, producing the weapons of destruction.
And, of course, many of the virgin women were losing their innocence to the young men, so that
the men themselves would not die as virgins.
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"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
- Explain the meaning of these words. (4)
[Need help?]
The poet, as we have seen, is looking at the collapse of values and the anarchy which has
beset his world as a result of this, and as a result of the onslaught of the Great War.
Yeats believed in tradition, particularly the old tradition where the aristocracy ruled. The
aristocracy represented the best but they had now lost all conviction. The worst -- the rabble
of people -- were full of passionate intensity but they lacked leadership to direct their passions.
And so all was falling apart as the world imploded through lack of genuine traditional leadership.
In the meantime, passionate intensity was inflaming the world because the people were without
guidance.
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