William Butler Yeats photographed by Alice Boughton in 1903

(5) WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS –

THE SECOND COMING (1919)

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold”

The Apocalypse according to Yeats, which sees Christianity winding down (or is that up?) and something else about to take its place. Something not pretty – something with a lot of apocalyptic chaos and violence, drowning out the innocent and good.

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity”

Well that or he predicted the internet.

And like any good apocalypse, the focus is its beast, modelled on Great Beast of the Apocalypse, or as I like to call it, that sixy beast. Spoiler alert – it’s the sphinx. Or some kind of apocalyptic Godzilla-sphinx, as featured in the most famous lines of the poem.

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

RATING: 4 STARS****
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