The_Second_Coming_Vs._Things_Fall_Apart

The Second Coming Vs. Things Fall Apart In 1919 William Butler Yeats published a poem called “The Second Coming.” Forty Years later, Chinua Achebe took the third line from that poem for the title of his book Things Fall Apart. Both pieces of literature deal with the beginning and the end of a civilization. Both show that change is inevitable and the nature of change can be chaotic and destructive. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," depicts the approach of a new world order and demonstrates the concept that change is inevitable. “The Second Coming” also taps into the concept of the gyre. The gyre is the idea that history occurs in cycles, specifically cycles "twenty centuries" in length (ln. 19). In this poem, Yeats predicts that the Christian era will soon give way apocalyptically to an era ruled by a desert beast with a “lion body and the head of a man” (ln. 14). Yeats describes the beast's eyes as "pitiless as the sun" (ln. 15), and it is followed not by the falcon, but by "shadows of desert birds," which are probably vultures. And no self-respecting vulture would soar around a titanic beast simply because of its symbolic significance; vultures go where there is food. change, yeats, world, second, okonkwo, men, inevitable, fall, coming, beast, apart, white, things, poem, beginning, because, war, village, pieces, ln, end, civilization, chaos, both, appearance, vultures, society, reader, published, probably, pitiless, people, one, nature, man, literature