It’s Like Watching TV in My Head

This poem is one of Yeats’ most famous works of poetry and is also an excellent example of how vivid imagery is used and can be interpreted in a poem.

The Second Coming -- W. B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The 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 everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of 'Spiritus Mundi'
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
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 it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


The poem starts with a falcon flying further and further away from its falconer in a widening spiral until it can no longer her instructions from its master. The repetition of the word turning and use of other words indicating motion help the reader to actually visualise the falcon spiralling into the sky (“Turning and turning in the widening gyre”). Yeats uses this as a metaphor for humankind and how it has spiralled out of control and so far from it’s origins that it can no longer hear the word of god.
The line “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold” is used as more of a transition line to the lines following but also points out the inevitability of things falling apart. The phrase “the centre cannot hold” is a warning that the current climate cannot stay like this and that humanity (the falcon) cannot hold together so far away from God (the falconer); something has got to give. The lines 4, 5 & 6 (“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, The ceremony of innocence is drowned ;”) are the results of humanity not taking stock of this warning, this is vivid visual imagery at it’s best. It also uses many references to water, for example: tide and drowned. This makes reference to the great flood and Noah’s Ark, but without a Noah who can save us now?
The following lines (“The best lack all convictions, while the worst, Are full of passionate intensity.” ) make another broad social comment. Yeats says that the good (best) people who can do something about the state of the world lack the motivation while those that wish for the worst have all the passion and intensity. He calls for a revelation and indeed a second coming, he uses the repetition and he structures the lines in a semi-speech tone to help the reader visualise him calling for help. While calling for the second coming of his lord he experiences a prophetic vision from Spiritus Mundi or ‘Spirit of the World’ (Yeats believed that everyone was spiritually connected and could connect to this spirit and visualise the past and possible futures). This vision takes him to a far off desert and he envisions the sphinx of Ancient Egypt (“A shape with lion body and the head of a man,”) as Christ at his second coming, but more importantly not the actual statue of the sphinx but the inspiration it caries along with it.
He describes the sphinx’s attitude very vividly in his next line, (“A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,”) this describes Christ as callous and indifferent to humanities plight as he had made the ultimate sacrifice before and we have thrown it away. This is why he used the sphinx as it has a very indifferent facial expression already. Yeats also uses more imagery to build suspense as the sphinx is moving slowly across the desert while the opportunistic and destructive birds circle overhead as if waiting to scavenge the remains of humanities hope as it dies with the coming of this cold, indifferent Christ. One again he uses the bird as a metaphor for society and humanity. This stanza is written to vividly depict the scene at hand and further build suspense and anxiety in the reader much like the foretelling of the apocalypse in the earlier stanza.
The vision ends quite obviously (“The darkness drops again; but now I know”), making sure the reader can tell that he is once again back in reality but enlightened by the experience. The next lines (“That twenty centuries of stony sleep, Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,”) refer to the time elapsed since Christs last visit to earth and how, through his rest he has been changed from a saviour to a nightmare.
The last lines are a question to the reader, (“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?“) which further helps to vividly portray a feeling of uncertainness in the author even though he is certain that a Christ will come because he is uncertain of the form it will take.

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This is a very good example of why being able to interpret vivid imagery is an important part of a poetry analysis. A bulk of your writing may very well be on this subject and it is this language that forms the basis for all manner of subjective responses such as the visual appeal, tone and mood. It is also a great link to discussion about other aspect that alter a poems effectiveness (rhythm, rhyme and figurative language).