The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in 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.
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?
~~
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
from Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1914
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]
"Slouching towards Bethlehem" sung by Joni Mitchell. Courtesy Joni Mitchell.
Prophetic! Written some time ago but still a concern as there will forever be these beasts in positions of power who rear their ugly malevolent heads. gyre (noun): a spiral or vortex. Seems... or must say is this way now... anarchy, angst, off-kilter, not in the expected, hoped for condition or state. Concerning. 'Spiritus Mundi', Latin meaning 'world spirit'. The 'rough beast' Yeats refers to is a manticore or sphynx, a mythical creature, to appear in 'The Second Coming'... the anti-Christ (there is metaphorical evidence of this now in the world). Heralding an impending "apocalyptic ending for Christianity and perhaps the world (Study, website)". What is frightening is that with monstrous madmen in power, in the world today... bent on vengence... this horror of horrors could quite possibly happen - God forbid! While reading your poem offering I am listening to:
ReplyDeleteSaint- Saëns Symphony No. 3, side 2, << organ >> Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra, Michael Murray organist
Suits the poem well. Ominous sounding music... 🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊