Blog Post #3 - Poetry Response

The Second Coming

Stephen Cook

Cline

ENG 102

11 September 2011

I chose to write on the poem "The Second Coming", by William Butler Yeats.  I'm not yet exactly sure what He is describing or the setting that the poem is written in.  It is clearly intended to describe a time of darkness.  In the sixth line he states how innocence is drowned.  This is the most intense feeling of despair.  His use of the town of bethlehem makes it clear that he is indeed referencing the return of christ.  The main reason that I chose this poem is that he describes a great sense of terror then immediately jumps to idea of the second coming.  In my opinion it is very frustrating to witness someone expressing such a great sense of despair.  The idea of a second coming is for those that have lost all hope in their situation.  I'm sure thats his purpose for writing it but it still is very aggravating.  I'm pretty well familiar with biblical prophesies and people use them for a number of reasons.  I will have to do more in depth research on the authors background and the history of this poem before I criticize it too strongly. 

This poem is very well written.  I want to make it clear that its the content that I'm frustrated with.  Sometimes people are very quick to jump to the idea that the world is close to it's end.  In reality we as humans think that the world will eventually end but have no real evidence to suggest that the end is near.  I'm hopeful that after I research the author and history of this poem I'll find that it was actually written with the purpose to express despair.  In this day and age, its hard to take people seriously that jump on the bandwagon with these type of ideas.  My main concern with the promotion of the idea of a "second coming" or "savior" is what one must think of their surroundings in order to accept such an idea.  One must view their surroundings as hopeless, hurting their ability to succeed and set goals.  I'm pretty sure the authors purpose in writing this poem was out of feelings of hopelessness and discouragement.  I look forward to doing the research to truly find the authors intent and the poems impact on its audience.

The idea of the second coming of christ is one that brings great debate.  In the following drafts of my analysis of this poem I will be focussing on the techniques and styles of the writer.  I will also look into and address the intentions and influence of this poem.  

Here is a link with some interesting statistics on the belief in the second coming of christ.