"The Second Coming," Vocabulary from the poem by W.B. Yeats

Born in 1865, William Butler Yeats lived during troubled times in Ireland. A mix of faith and fear can be seen in this poem, which later inspired a novelist writing about a troubled time in Nigeria's history.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 10 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Things Fall Apart, Prayer to the Masks, The Second Coming, Things Fall Apart (excerpts), An African Voice
10 words 128 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. anarchy
    a state of lawlessness and disorder
    Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
  2. innocence
    the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned
  3. conviction
    an unshakable belief in something without need for proof
    The best lack all conviction
  4. passionate
    having or expressing strong emotions
    while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity
  5. revelation
    communication by a divine or supernatural agency
    Surely some revelation is at hand
  6. vast
    unusually great in size or amount or extent or scope
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight
  7. pitiless
    deficient in humane and kindly feelings
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
  8. indignant
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    while all about it
    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds
  9. vex
    disturb the peace of mind of
    but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
  10. beast
    a cruelly rapacious person
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Created on Mon Oct 13 16:38:34 EDT 2014 (updated Mon Jul 31 14:39:06 EDT 2017)

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