“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats is an apocalyptic poem because the poem details an apocalyptic setting and great change is portrayed in the poem. The poem uses imagery in saying “[t]hings fall apart; the centre cannot hold” to set an apocalyptic setting. Many people view the apocalypse as a time where the world is falling apart. However, many people don’t realize that apocalypses signify times of great change. Eventually, the poem moves from a time where the world is being destroyed to the return of Christ in saying “[s]louches towards Bethlehem to be born[.]” This apocalyptic poem outlines a time of great change in the world after depicting the destruction to the world.
One thought on ““The Second Coming” is arguably an apocalyptic poem, but people tend to get confused about apocalypses not always having to be bad; they could simply be times of great change (one world ending and another beginning and so on and so forth). It could be interesting to consider apocalypses as a genre and whether you think this is an apocalyptic poem and if so, how and why or not?”
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I agree with you that “The Second Coming” is an apocalyptic poem. After Yeats paves the way for the chaos of the world in the first verse, he begins to describe “Surely some revelation is at hand, surely the second coming is at Hand. The second coming,” in the second verse. He uses repeated techniques to emphasize what was going to happen. Also, he mentions”Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born” at the end also brings infinite thinking to the readers. The human activities will bring greater harm or unpredictable future to human beings.