William Butler Yeats: The Second Coming

"The Second Coming"
-William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center 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 conviction, 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?

This is the poem that contributed to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe also got the name of his book from the poem. Specifically the excerpt of the poem was in the beginning of Things Fall Apart.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;,
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

I feel that this poem is very deep and thoughtful. The things that this poem consists of are not simple words on paper. It goes in depth of describing the darkness of the word using symbols, imagery, and personification. This poem expresses its ideas with the actions of symbolic things, for example “reel shadows of the indignant desert birds”. The readers are put to the spot of trying to picture everything the poem says and understanding the meaning behind every item. There is no one meaning behind the verses of the poem. It may be interpreted in many ways, but I think that’s what the author wanted his readers to do, to analyze the poem and figure out the meaning behind each symbol that he laid out. In the end, his poem is multi- dimension with many hidden meanings encrypted within it.

Study Guide & Thoughtful Questions

I found a website that contained many information about the customs in Things Fall Apart. The website is an online study guide for Things Fall Apart. I found it very useful in explaining about the African culture. It also gives an overview of the characters (mainly Okonkwo and those related to him) There was also a section where it provide some discussion questions broken down for each chapter.

From this guide, I learn interesting facts on the African customs. I think the most interesting things in the study guide are the discussion questions. Questions like:

"How is awareness of rank observed in the drinking of the palm wine? Note that this chapter contains another proverb about proverbs. How does share-cropping work? What is the relationship of women to agriculture? Note that a customary way of committing suicide in this culture is hanging. How does Okonkwo react to 'the worst year in living memory?' " [Chapter Three]

Those types of question really gets you thinking and analyzing about the text.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html

Fallen Tree

At the end of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo killed himself by hanging himself on a tree. From the reader’s view, the first thought of what cause Okonkwo’s death would probably be the arrival of Christianity and the white government. However, when analyzed more in depth, the reason behind his suicide may ultimately be from the disruption of his lifestyle. The arrival of white men and their new religion could be seen only as a factor to what the whole problem is.

Okonkwo had started out with a distasteful man as a father. He was able to gain a good reputation after defeating Amalinze the Cat. However, things went downside for him once again after the period of peace, just as the book title implies. Although some may argue that it’s because of the things that happened around him that cause his death, I think his response to the events around him affected the reason of his downfall. For example, he did not have to participate in the killing of Ikemefuma, yet he decided to in order to look strong. This causes his son Nwoye to fear him even more. Later on, we can see how much of a factor Nwoye is to Okonkwo. Okonkwo held such expectation from him, but only to have Nwoye walk out of the family forever. Like tree that stands alone in a thunderstorm, Okonkwo face difficulties and finally meets his tragic end.