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The Second Coming
by
William Butler Yeats
Home
Poetry
The Second Coming
Literary Devices
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Intro
The Poem
Summary
Analysis
Themes
Quotes
Study Questions
Best of the Web
How to Read a Poem
Symbolism, Imagery, Wordplay
The Gyre
Medieval
Biblical
Spiritus Mundi
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Table of Contents
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The Second Coming Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay
There’s more to a poem than meets the eye.
The Gyre
Line 1: The "gyre" is an important recurring symbol in Yeats’s poetry. Technically, it stands from the alternation between two historical cycles: one characterized by order and growth, the ot...
Medieval
Lines 1-2: Falconing was an activity that is associated with medieval times. People with enough wealth – that is, feudal landowners – often built aviaries where they kept birds to use f...
Biblical
Title: "The Second Coming" is an allusion to the reappearance of Christ as prophesied in the Book of Revelation.Lines 4-6: These lines contain two more allusions to the Bible. First, the word "anar...
Spiritus Mundi
Lines 12-17: These lines are an example of symbolism, and they contain several symbols that can really be disconnected from another. In general, they represent a confused "veiled" vision of the "ro...
