The Charisma of ‘The Second Coming’

Abstract

First published in 1920, W. B. Yeats's apocalyptic poem, 'The Second Coming', is a contender for the most famous poem of the twentieth century. It is surely the most quoted. Celebrated books by Chinua Achebe and Joan Didion are but the most well-known examples of its titular appeal, which extends to travel books, social commentary, science fiction and fantasy. Journalists and political analysts have frequently declared some 'centre' or other ‘cannot hold’, that some allegedly hate-filled horde is filled with ‘passionate intensity’. The poem seems enduring, resonant and relevant, including in an age of supposed post-truth and twitter mobs. Readers have long been struck by the poem's compelling visionary power. It braids together familiarity and vagueness, creating a tremendously effective counterpoint between certainty and bewilderment, hubris and humility. Its careful abstraction allows its lines to be recycled easily; but its cultural aura provides the motive to do so. This essay will try to account for its charisma, mindful of the literary economy in which it succeeded. It will look closely at the poem's language, including some of the decisions Yeats made at the editing stage, at its early appearance in The Dial and Yeats's collection, Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). It will also consider its cultural afterlives, where the falcon most certainly flew out of earshot of the falconer.