Page 102 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit
P. 102
“The Second Coming”
by William Butler Yeats, pages 81-82
Vocabulary
gyre – spiral
anarchy – disorder
indignant – angry
vexed – to puzzle, annoy
1. What is the purpose of the poem’s first stanza?
The first stanza aims to describe the world in its presence state. Keep in mind that it was
written around the time of the first World War (1921).
2. What is the significance of the poem's mention of the Sphinx myth?
The Sphynx serves to contrast the modern and ancient worlds.
3. In the second stanza, the speaker describes his image of the Second Coming. Historically,
what is meant by the Second Coming? What does the speaker imagine it will be like?
The Second Coming is a reference to the Christian belief that Christ will come again to the
Earth to save those who have been true to God and to punish all sinners. The speaker
believes that part of the Second Coming will include a giant creature that will ravage the
Earth with its “lion body and head of a man.”
4. Explain the allusion found in the phrase “vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle.”
The allusion here is to the cradle that held Christ after he was born. This allusion is
reinforced in the next line, when the speaker tells the reader he envisions the creature
“Slouching towards Bethlehem,” where Christ is said to have been born.
T-84
