The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe 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 everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spiritus MundiTroubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;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 itWind shadows of the indignant desert birds.The darkness drops again but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Words in this poem
- gyre v. t.
- To turn round; to gyrate. Bp. Hall. Drayton. [Cf. OF. gyrer, girer. See Gyrate.]
- falconer n.
- A person who breeds or trains hawks for taking birds or game; one who follows the sport of fowling with hawks. Johnson. [OE. fauconer, OF. falconier, fauconier, F. fauconnier. See Falcon.]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- indignant a.
- Affected with indignation; wrathful; passionate; irate; feeling wrath, as when a person is exasperated by unworthy or unjust treatment, by a mean action, or by a degrading accusation. [L. indignans, -antis, p. pr. of indignari to be indignant, disdain. See Indign.]
- bethlehem n.
- A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam. [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Second Coming is in the public domain. This text is taken from Michael Robartes and the dancer, Project Gutenberg ebook #72987; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming, in Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72987, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-michael-robartes/the-second-coming.html, id L19952.
Form and metre
The Second Coming is 22 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 AA--A--------- handA · handA · out · mundi · sandA · man · sun · it · birds · know · sleep · cradle · last · born
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Turning and turning in the widening gyre | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| The falcon cannot hear the falconer; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The ceremony of innocence is drowned; | 10 | ·/˘·˘·/˘·· |
| The best lack all conviction, while the worst | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Are full of passionate intensity. | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Surely some revelation is at hand; | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Surely the Second Coming is at hand. | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘···· |
| When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi | 12 | ···/˘·····/˘ |
| Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; | 10 | /˘·····˘/· |
| A shape with lion body and the head of a man, | 12 | ···//˘······ |
| A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. | 11 | ·/···˘/˘/˘· |
| The darkness drops again but now I know | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| That twenty centuries of stony sleep | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, | 11 | ···/···/˘/˘ |
| And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? | 10 | /˘··/˘···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.