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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
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 termed "the Great War" or First World War, a war which had
brought unparalleled destruction and loss of life. This brought to Yeats's mind a belief in the
two thousand year cycles of the Ancient people that are commonly called "Ages" or
"Aeons".
Did you know that, as the earth spins on its axis, it also has a counter-wobble in the opposite
direction? This is known as "precession". While it takes the earth just 24 hours to
complete one rotational spin which causes night and day, it takes roughly 25,000 years to
complete one precessional spin.
The Ancients knew all about precession. Indeed, they had measured the earth's precessional
spin by its effect on the stars. They drew pictures in the star formations along the belt of the
equator -- which star formations we call "constellations" -- and gave them names such
as Libra, Pisces, Taurus and Aquarius. They drew twelve such pictures in the star patterns and
these, of course, have become the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
If one were to stand on the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at dawn on the first day
of spring and look due east, one would see one of these constellations just above the horizon.
At the moment it would be Aquarius.
Another interesting point is that the Sphinx -- mentioned in this poem -- lies on or close to the
Tropic of Cancer looking east and has witnessed the dawn of the Ages for thousands of years.
Indeed, Robert Bauval argues that this gargantuan carved lion has been lying there since the
Age of Leo -- which was about twelve thousand years ago.
Because the Ancients divided the night sky into twelve zodiacal signs, and because it takes the
earth about 25,000 years to complete just one precessional spin, that means a zodiacal
constellation will remain in the dawn sky for some two thousand years.
And so the Ancients named these two thousand year periods after the zodiacal sign that was
then showing at dawn on the first day of spring. They called them "Ages" or
"Aeons".
At about the time that Jesus Christ was born, they were just entering into the Age of Pisces the
fish. Indeed, the Age of Pisces is the time-span between Jesus and our present day. Ever
wondered why the fish is so symbolic of the time of Jesus and the early Christian Church? And
why Jesus called fishermen to be his special friends?
Somehow this two-fold spinning of time is what Yeats meant by "gyres" -- a spin within
a spin or a precessional spin within a natural spin. It is these gyres which mark the passage
of time and mark the passage of the Ages. We have currently just reached the end of the Age
of Pisces and are now entering 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 therefore absolutely impossible to understand this poem
without a rudimentary knowledge of it.
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!
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:
"Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!"
- Is the poet approaching this theme from a particularly Christian point of view? If not, then
what does he mean by "the Second Coming"? (8)
[Need help?]
It is highly doubtful that Yeats has a particularly Christian point of view here. Indeed, it would
seem that Yeats is taking a different route. He speaks about the end of the 2,000 year
period, i.e. the end of the Age of Pisces -- which was indeed nearing its end when he wrote
this poem. The poet appears to see the incredible destruction caused during the Great War
as the beginning of the end of this Age.
Because the Age of Pisces is synonymous with the Age of the Christian Church -- Jesus was
born at the beginning of the Age of Pisces but we are now going into the Age of Aquarius --
it is logical to presume that Yeats sees the end of this age as also introducing the end of the
Christian Church as we know it.
Have a look at the last few lines of this poem. Yeats looks to a Second Coming at Bethlehem,
but it is not of the Baby Jesus but rather some other strange and mystical being -- a "rough
beast" that slouches into life. It would seem then that the poet has the birth of yet another
new Age in mind -- the Age of Aquarius -- rather than the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
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"Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight."
- What is meant by "Spiritus Mundi"? (4)
[Need help?]
"Spiritus Mundi" means literally "the Spirit of the World". What exactly is this
Spirit? It's difficult to say. It would seem certain that the poet does not have a Christian type
God in mind but rather some form of a theosophical or oriental Universal Being -- a Spirit of
the Universe.
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- What does he mean when he says that this "vast image . . . troubles his
sight". (4)
[Need help?]
The poet mentions the vast image a couple of lines further one: the Sphinx with its lion's body
and the face of a man. It "troubles his sight" -- probably not in the sense that it vexes,
worries or frightens him but rather that the statue is just so big that it fills his entire vision. He
can see nothing else.
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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,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds."
[Need help?]
Yes, the image is that of the Sphinx, the colossal statue of a lion with the face of a man which
lies in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza, looking forever east at the rising sun. It probably also
had the face of a lion originally, till some destructive pharaoh defaced it and had his own
likeness put there. (People go to jail these days for defacing monuments like that!)
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- Why would its gaze be "blank and pitiless as the sun"? (4)
[Need help?]
It is a statue carved into rock and so its gaze is not alive but looks forever and without blinking
into the east where the sun rises. Its eyes are therefore "blank and pitiless".
These words could also be interpreted in another way, though. A Shaman -- a person
regarded as having access to the world of good and evil spirits -- is often depicted as being
in a trance-like state, with a blank and pitiless stare.
Is the poet therefore depicting the Sphinx as some form of a Shaman which is about to awaken
and announce his revelation to the world? Certainly there seems to be life in the beast's
hindquarters as it begins to awaken at the dawn of the New Age.
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- How could it be moving its "slow thighs"? What message is the poet attempting to
portray here? (4)
[Need help?]
You need to have a look at the answer to the previous question. If it is true that the poet is
depicting the Sphinx as a Shaman, then it is possible that, at the very end of the Age of Pisces,
the Sphinx is beginning to awaken so that it can view the eastern horizon as the constellation
of Aquarius rises into the sky. Or do you have another answer in mind?
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"The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
- What does Yeats mean when he speaks of "twenty centuries of stony
sleep"? (4)
[Need help?]
It cannot be a coincidence that twenty centuries is equal to 2,000 years. The poet has therefore
to be referring to the passing of the Age of Pisces and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. The
length of the Age of Pisces is just over 2,000 years. The Sphinx has been asleep during these
2,000 years and, because he is carved in stone, it has been a stony sleep.
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- Comment on the poet's depiction of the "rocking cradle". (4)
[Need help?]
A strange image, isn't? When one thinks of the Baby Jesus, one thinks of a manger -- a crib
of hay -- and not a rocking cradle. It is probable that the poet is deliberately using a modern
image of a baby in its rocking cradle to jolt the reader into the realisation that he is not speaking
about the Second Coming of the Baby Jesus but rather the coming of the New Age of Aquarius.
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- Is this scene in Bethlehem a normal nativity scene? If not, what image is the poet
attempting to convey? (4)
[Need help?]
I think it is fairly clear that this is not the usual nativity scene. Where is the manger of straw?
Where are the cows and the sheep? Where are the shepherds and the wise men? On the
other hand, we don't even have a baby at all but rather a "rough beast" slouching in.
By the way, don't get the impression that the poet is afraid of this rough beast. He is simply
using an expression to indicate that what is about to happen is very, very different from what
we would expect. It is the dawn of the New Age.
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