## Saturday, May 2, 2009

### Weekend poetry

I think this poem is very beautiful, in an odd sort of way, and perfect for a blog like mine.
The Second Coming
William Butler 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 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?

#### 13 comments:

Anonymous said...

  Though I'm not able to understand the deeper meanings, on a surface level, it's quite a nice piece of poetry.

  May 2, 2009 at 1:36 AM
Anthony Clarke said...

  I agree with the above poster, in that it is a great piece of poetry. I don't think i grasped it fully, but very nice.
  who by, you?

  May 2, 2009 at 4:23 AM
Soeroah said...

  By William Butler Yates.
  This was on Heroes, to!

  May 2, 2009 at 5:12 AM
Shanarah said...

  I figured you for more of a "The Road Not taken" by Frost
  "I took the one less traveled by,
  And that has made all the difference."
  It really reminds me of your youth (As told by wowwiki)
  Anyway,
  Call me
  ~Tracy

  May 2, 2009 at 6:00 AM
Dalladubb said...

  You forgot your LOBSMAARP ranking.

  May 2, 2009 at 8:03 AM
Anonymous said...

  This is one of my more favorite poems. Thank you.

  May 2, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Sargeras said...

  @ bfg & tom: I can't claim to understand it fully either. That's one of the signs of a truly great poem - you don't have to.
  @ Tracy: That's a good one too. Let the record show I'm a fan of Frost as well.
  @ Dalladubb: It won't be on every post.
  @ ceestar42: :-)

  May 2, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Surreal said...

  Crazies! The "deeper meaning" is the feeling it gives as you read it! True art Sargeras!

  May 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Anonymous said...

  I am rather a fan of this poem, but I find it a bit overused. As someone said, it was used on Heroes. It's like how Good Riddance by Green Day is a good song, but it's played at every graduation or TV series finale, and people call it Time of Your Life and miss the point of the song, and it gets so abused that you forget it's a good song...

  May 2, 2009 at 2:25 PM
Sargeras said...

  @ l0stmyrel1g10n: True, but I'm willing to bet there are also lots of people who've never read it at all. If nobody talked about famous things because they were afraid the material was "overused," great poems like this one would die out.
  I, for example, have never seen an episode of Heroes.

  May 2, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Anthony Clarke said...

  Me either, sarge.

  May 2, 2009 at 8:07 PM
Soeroah said...

  @tom
  Sargeras has an excuse, what with galloping around the galaxy exacting painful and random Death-Star level destruction on unsuspecting worlds.
  :p

  May 2, 2009 at 9:48 PM
Anthony Clarke said...

  Tom has an excuse, being to busy cowering in fear to watch television. :D
  And the death-star level is a bit sub-par for you sarge. Feeling a bit tired lately?

  May 3, 2009 at 6:10 AM

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