English Literature / Unit 16 ENL 1510 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"The Second Coming"
Captions available
The idea
"The Second Coming," written in nineteen nineteen after the First World War, pictures history's gyre breaking: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." It ends with a "rough beast" that "Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born."
In practice
A widening gyre; a rough beast.
Where people slip
The gyre is from Yeats's system.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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