Eng426 20th century english literature

Themes and Techniques in “The Second Coming”

Change: From the first lines of the poem we could see that there is a drastic change from the realities of the traditional world where life was not marked with nuclear weapons, war and death. The modern world the poet paints here is a place where the falcon cannot hear the falconer, there is no longer reasoning and rationality and this could also mean that the modern world was no longer interested in God and authority that are the voices of caution as a result; the centre that holds everything together is reduced to nothing.


The effect of war: The war opened and loosed the blood – rimmed tide as a result, there was the loss of innocence, people kill one another on the war front and both the old and the young participated in the war actively losing their lives, their emotions, and value for life.


Death and destruction: In the world the poet paints, there is destruction and death, destruction of values, norms, philosophies and morals as things fall apart and death as the “blood- rimmed tide” is opened. To compound matters, the saviour that comes, comes in the figure of a beast that is slow to action and first slouches towards its own redemption and change and is less concerned about the situation around him with its pitiless and blank gaze.


The use of imagery: There is the use of violent visual imagery in the poem which includes: “the widening gyre”, “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed”, the beast that is half man, half lion, the falcon that could not hear the falconer, and so on.
Metaphor and symbolism: The metaphors include the falcon and the falconer, the blood
– rimmed tide is loosed and so on while the major symbol in the poem is the second coming.
Allusion: There is biblical allusion to the Second Coming of Christ and some critics have seen some classical allusion in the poem too.