W. B. Yeats’s “The Second Coming” Amidst a Global Pandemic

Abstract

A good piece of literature stands the test of time but the prudent ones get better with time. We can put William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” in the latter category. Many platitudes have been showered upon the poem, such as apocalyptic, religious, dystopian, futuristic, etc to name a few, and pragmatically speaking the traces of elements of all these concepts can be found in the poem. However, above all, “The Second Coming” is a wakeup call to humanity to introspect their violent and futile actions in the name of quest for survival, power and sovereignty. As destiny would have it, currently living under the shadow of an aggressive pandemic and the ongoing political wars and constant deterioration of nature due to human exploitation, the world is suffering and is in need of a healing, both literal and metaphorical. This is where W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” comes in as a panacea, strongly reinforcing and consolidating the belief that a well written piece of literature, in this case a poem, can play a huge role in making us understand the gravity of a situation and also drives home the realization that this too shall pass, albeit slowly and steadily.