The Second Coming (Slouching towards Bethlehem) Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
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.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the 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.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
nd what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
and the lines from his Easter, 1916 -- "a terrible beauty is born."
The book is beautiful and terrible and "the worst are full of passionate conviction."
On a lighter note, some pictures of my book chaos:
Ah, those look pretty good compared to my bookcases. That first picture looks like you are gearing up for another Southern Reading Challenge! :)
ReplyDeleteI love your book chaos. It's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteGotta love book chaos!
ReplyDeleteI really like that Yeats poems. So ominous and dark.
ReplyDeleteI think your book chaos is beautiful too!
Maggie - This is just in the living room, which is supposed to be more presentable. :) I need to straighten up and/or move some of these books.
ReplyDeletebookfool - It is chaotic, but I never seem to find the energy to actually organize them in any way. Only a book lover would find it beautiful, but there are plenty of us, aren't there?
Bybee - Ha! Bet your shelves are neater!
Nymeth - The book, like the poem, seems ominous. I'm enjoying it, but it is a frightening look at Afghanistan's violence.