The Second Coming by William Yeats

William Butler Yeats, a multitalented individual won the Nobel Prize in 1923. Born the son of a well known Irish painter and religious skeptic had many influences in his life. Eventually, he converted to Paganism from Christianity. He is till this day considered one of the greatest poets that ever lived.

To understand the meaning of William Butler Yeats poem "The Second Coming", you must first understand the difference between Christianity and Paganism. Yeats was raised as a Christian and turned to pagan mysticism later in his life. Therefore, we can find the subject of this poem by tracing his flow of thought through Christianity up to the point when he diverged from it.

Christianity is based around the soul. The soul becomes healthy by its removal from the sin, which it inherits in the world. A healthy or virtuous soul is close to God by contact with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be considered the spirit of God on earth. Jesus Christ is thought to be the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, therefore the embodiment of virtue.

In contrast, Pagans worship the spirit of earth as a god, believing it to be the ultimate force, which is neither good nor evil. The religion states the more base human tendencies that Christians would call sinful would be glorified as the reflections of nature. These would include pursuits of pleasure, luxury, or sexual gratification. Many modern pagans especially the ones Yeats associated with do not dispute the ideas of Christianity concerning God but they do not worship him. Early leaders of this movement, like Alister Crowley, with whom Yeats was associated with considered themselves Satanists in this right since Christians equate the spirit of the world with the devil. Yeats was certainly a Christian at some point in his life and makes allusions to Christian faith in "The Second Coming", which would indicate that he lends some credence to it, so we can assume that he took the Satanist point of view.

As the world turned towards paganism so did Yeats. The poem, while on one level is an earnest description of the change that is occurring to mankind, it is also an earnest illustration of his change to paganism.

The opening eight lines illustrate the strife Yeats had seen in his lifetime from a Christian point of view. They describe man as moving away from God in a desperate tone, obviously not written by a pagan. Upon his cries to God in line 9 and 10, however, he comes into what could be described as a communion with the Spiritus Mundi. He receives a vision from the spirit of man in the same way that one would supposedly receive a vision from the Holy Spirit and is converted. After his vision he uses the phrase "now I know," which suggests knowledge from some higher power similar to divine wisdom. In this new light we can assume that Yeats was relaxed with the idea that since there is no good or evil in the world, only what is natural (Nature is like a cycle), there is no need to be worried by events such as those that are taking place. Furthermore, there then is no need to feel guilt for one's actions.

After his vision Yeats is sure of two things: that history is repeating itself, even if the new era is an altered form of the old one, and that he is a member of the "new paganism". This explains the awe that fills the poem in its closing. An illustration of a rebirth into Paganism will be filled more with fear and awe than love for this reason: Christianity worships God in his love as a being of supreme good, but pagans worship the spirit of the world as a being of supreme power. Furthermore, his cadence in the last phase of the poem implies that he is almost speaking with reverence to the spiritus mundi and a quite disdain for what he sees as a flaw in Christianity. This brings us to the final two lines in "The Second Coming", "And what rough beast, its hour come 'round at last/ slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" This first sums up the poems theme of a "Second Coming" of paganism as opposed to Christ. Secondly, however, are the implications of the statement. The book of revelations says that in his second coming Christ will not be born humbly among men, but to come to the world in full glory. But Yeats, since he has already established the true nature of this second coming, now returns to this prophecy, pointing out that it had been partially right, that the figure of the coming would not be born humbly. But it seems that he half suggests the reason why this is true is because of an inherent weakness in Christianity.

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