In your opinion, what is WB Yeats referring to in his poem "The Second Coming" in these 2 last lines:

Question

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"
It was written in 1921, and I wonder if he was sort of latter day Nostradomus, or what? No, I am not requesting homework help. Just want to know what others might think.

The world has experienced several "false Christs" to date, Hitler among them.

Thank you, Croatan.

Answer 1

If you read the rest of the poem, Yeats mentions the "beast" before:
"A shape with a lion body and the head of a man / A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun...etc.". So the last two lines are an indirect reference to Christ, but also to St John's description of the beast of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation, because Yeats believed in a cyclical vision of history. What he announces in the poem is a new era of irrational forces. The beast is not really described: it is still an unknown, vague (= rough) beast.
Finally, for somebody like Yeats, the images (and sounds) of violence probably refer to the effect of anarchy in the Irish civil war. I agree about the reference to World War I (the poem was written in 1919), but also the Russian Revolution (1917).

Answer 2

Not a theologian by any means, these last two lines remind me of the Second Coming prophesied in the Bible.Not Christ, but a false Christ. Ack, someone help me out here! This was long ago and far away, teachings I learned while growing up.

Anyway, that is what comes to mind when I read those lines.

Answer 3

It is hard for us moderns to imagine the effect WW1 had on an entire generation of Europeans. Nothing since the Black Death of the middle ages had so destroyed and disillusioned so many people and for so little gain. It was readily apparent that the next war would be worse and the very idea of progress was a sham. The certainty of the 19th century had been replaced by loss of religious faith and political and economic upheaval. A return to Normality was forever destroyed.

Answer 4

Honestly coming from a professional poet, it sounds slightly forced. Do you think it is forced? Truthfully it is a very good first attempt. You have the ability to put your feelings out there. But is does have stretched all over it. You just need to let the words flow. Do not MAKE anything come out. If you do it will look like a pen exploded all over your page. and ... EDIT EDIT EDIT my dear. The key to a good poem is multiple copies.

Answer 5

by 1921 yeats was already heavily involved with the order of the golden dawn - an occultist movement which would soon give him the inspiration for his own book of magick 'a vision' [1925].

like most of the pagan / occult / satanist movements of the early twentieth century the order of the golden dawn was anti-rational. they saw the anarchist results of the first world war (including the bolshevist revolution and in yeats case especially the irish war of independence and the internal conflicts which would soon lead to the civil war) as a moment when western society would liberate itself from traditional reason and return to a more emotionally-oriented politics.

yeats' fascination with, and admiration for, anti-rational politics (including fascism - which is the probable hero of 'leda and the swan') is often glossed-over by contemporary critics, but i don't think you can understand this poem without it.

Answer 6

Yeats is referring to the second coming of Christ

Answer 7

he was talking about the end of an era., the second coming parodying Jesus birth and death.

Answer 8

WELL WELL WELL