Poetry Slam!: "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats

In this modernist poem, Yeats uses apocalyptic imagery to characterize the state of the world after World War I.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gyre
    a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
  2. falcon
    a diurnal bird of prey
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
  3. anarchy
    a state of lawlessness and disorder
    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.
  4. conviction
    an unshakable belief in something without need for proof
    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.
  5. revelation
    an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
  6. pitiless
    without mercy or sympathy
    ...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.
  7. reel
    revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis
    ...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.
  8. indignant
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    ...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.
  9. vex
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    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?
  10. slouch
    walk slovenly
    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?
Created on Fri Sep 20 09:56:55 EDT 2019 (updated Fri Sep 20 10:15:24 EDT 2019)

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