Consider the period of computer technology for a moment and try to imagine how drastically different daily life would be without the simplest of electronic devices. Practically everyone is caught up in technology. From the second we wake up to an alarm clock, drive our car to work, keep in contact through cell phones, and receive our news from television, radio, or internet; life certainly would not be the same without these staple technologies. Especially in western culture, advances in technology are thought to pave the way towards progress and prosperity for the future, but where to? Twentieth century poet, William Butler Yeats critiques the ignorance of western civilization in his poem “The Second Coming” because there seems to be a missing link between the human mind and nature. The symbolic imagery that Yeats uses in the poem suggests that western society should question its relation to history, nature, and values or else civilization will inevitably destroy itself.
The title of the poem, “The Second coming” is derived from the Christian religion and Jesus Christ, which suggests that a new age of knowledge is on its way to the forefront of human existence. With the advancement of technology that has taken place over the past two thousand years, the amount of knowledge and ideas gained through wars, science, and media has definitely shaped western civilization’s current values, leading people further away from religion and spirituality. The first couple of lines from Yeat’s poem exemplify his concern for the future, “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart;” (1-2) which suggests that human technology is not leading forward, but instead toward demise. Advancements in human existence distinguished by science and revelations such as the rotation of the earth and planets enables people to believe that everything about the universe can be known. The imagery of the falconer being unable to control the falcon suggests that man’s conquering attitude toward nature is making it more difficult for people live. Nature is merely chaos in which we try to find meaning within, “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (4). Jewel Brooker agrees with this idea in here article "'The Second Coming' and 'The Waste Land': Capstones of the Western Civilization Course", “the danger is related to incredible advances in knowledge” (242) because the mind is capable of creating its own world separate from the one in which it lives. This becomes a problem for Yeats and western civilization because it seems impossible to agree upon anything universal.
Keep in mind that Yeats wrote this poem around 1920, right after World War One which had a dramatic affect on the human psyche. The technological advancements in weaponry and international affairs caused a lot of competition and tension throughout the world, making differences in nations across the world more apparent. Yeats, according to Joan Carberg from the journal Daedulus, “did not have the philosophers ability to simplify, the religious leaders capacity for blind faith, or the historians firm dedication to faith” (142) making life out to be far more complex than the here and now. This thought proposes that Yeats himself saw the injustices of his time and found himself lost within it because of the impossibility to find clear cut meaning. He writes, “when a cast image out of Spiritus Mundi / Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert / A Shape with lion body and the head of a man” (12-14) which shows that he understood the collective consciousness as impossible to understand, and ideas and events from history are never accurately depicted or fully understood either. The image of the Sphinx appears in the poem as a reminder that great civilizations of the past (Egyptians) disappeared, and so too could be the fate of western civilization if a basic faith or belief is not able to be agreed upon.
Going back to the notion of “The Second Coming” as a new period of human existence, many new ideas around this time period influenced Yeats, the reason why this poem says so much about the current time period. Yeats understood that no matter how much is learned and derived from history, there is still much to be discovered. If Charles Darwin was never to introduce his theory of evolution, or Sigmund Freud with his ideas of the unconscious mind and ego, many people would never have considered their realities and would have been left to depend on things like religion as their sole purpose of meaning. Yeats illustrates this, “that twenty centuries of stony sleep / were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle” (19-20) suggesting that people are determined to find more meaning in life as to not be lulled like babies with complacency. One gets the feeling that Yeats had a problem with all of these conflicting ideas about what is “right” for society, mostly because he saw the nature of man to put himself above all other aspects of life, including the earth and it’s mysterious nature.
From Yeats poem “The Second Coming” one can definitely get the sense that he feared the future because of many new ideas arise during the time period. About ninety years separates his poem from the current age, and we are now further into the post modern age than ever with the vast amount of history and knowledge we have to draw from. Life is not merely meaningless, but one does have the difficult task of finding meaning and rationalizing it. There is so much knowledge available today that it can often feel daunting trying to find any answers. Will the vast expanse of knowledge cause our current civilization to break down? Are traditional values solely was keeps western civilization together? All in all, Yeats reminds us that humans are not all that matters in the grand scheme of the widening gyre.
Works Cited
Brooker, Jewel S. ""The Second Coming" and "The Waste Land": Capstones of the Western Civilization Course." College Literature 13.3 (1986): 240-53. JSTOR. Web. 15 Sept. 2010.
Carberg, Joan S. ""A Vision" By William Butler Yeats." Daedalus 103.1 (1974): 142-44. JSTOR. Web. 15 Sept. 2010.
Smith, Philip. 100 Best-loved Poems. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.
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