What is gyre in Second Coming?

What is gyre in Second Coming?

A gyre in “The Second Coming” refers to a spiral or a circular motion, but it also stands for the larger cycles of history. Yeats believed that an orderly gyre or cycle of history that began with the birth of Christ was ending, about to be replaced with a new historical cycle of chaos and cruelty.

What is Yeats gyre theory?

It simply is. Yeats conceptualized history as a series of interpenetrating gyres. Historical eras overlap, one ending as the next one begins. He believed that these gyres or eras of history tended to fall into roughly 2,000-year periods. While one tends to dominant, the other is always implied and weakly present.

Why does Yeats use a gyre as his conception of time?

Yeats believed that this image (he called the spirals “gyres”) captured the contrary motions inherent within the historical process, and he divided each gyre into specific regions that represented particular kinds of historical periods (and could also represent the psychological phases of an individual’s development).

What is the symbolic interpretation of gyre?

The Gyre. The “gyre” Yeats writes of in “The Second Coming” can be understood literally as a vortex of air so powerful that it consumes whatever is lost inside it. It should also be understood figuratively as a representation of Yeats’s concept of time. Yeats believed time to be cyclical, broken up into epochs.

What rough beast it’s Hour?

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? William Butler Yeats, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature.

What is gyre in literature?

The word ‘gyre’ is used by writers, especially poets, to describe any whirling, spiral or circular motion. It is an unusual word, but its meaning is clear, and it obviously corresponds to the commonplace ‘ gyration’.

What does the widening gyre mean?

The falcon is described as “turning” in a “widening gyre” until it can no longer “hear the falconer,” its human master. A gyre is a spiral that expands outward as it goes up. Yeats uses the image of gyres frequently in his poems to describe the motion of history toward chaos and instability.

Who is the rough beast in The Second Coming?

Of great significance in Yeats’ poem is the “rough beast,” apparently the Anti-Christ, who has not been born yet. And most problematic is that the rough beast is “slouch[ing] towards Bethlehem to be born.” The question is, how can such an Anti-Christian creature be slouching if it has not yet been born?

Why did Yeats write the Second Coming?

William Butler Yeats wrote “The Second Coming” in 1919, soon after the end of World War I, known at the time as “The Great War” because it was the biggest war yet fought and “The War to End All Wars” because it was so horrific that its participants dearly hoped it would be the last war.

What is the blood dimmed tide?

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; These three lines describe a situation of violence and terror through phrases like “anarchy,” “blood-dimmed tide,” and “innocence [. . .] drowned.” (By the way, “mere” doesn’t mean “only” in this context; it means “total” or “pure.”)

What beast slouches toward Bethlehem?

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? William Butler Yeats, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature. His work was greatly influenced by the heritage and politics of Ireland.

What does The Widening Gyre mean in the Second Coming?

The widening gyre (symbol) “Gyre” is actually a scientific term used to refer to a vortex located over the air or sea, and it usually refers to systems of circulating ocean currents. In Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” “gyre” is used to represent the swirling, turning landscape of life itself. Gyres apper in many of Yeats’s poems.

What does gyre mean in Yeats’s the Second Coming?

“Gyre” is actually a scientific term used to refer to a vortex located over the air or sea, and it usually refers to systems of circulating ocean currents. In Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” “gyre” is used to represent the swirling, turning landscape of life itself.

What is the meaning of the poem the Second Coming?

About This Poem. Among other things, “The Second Coming” takes its imagery from Yeats’s book, A Vision, a zodiac of sorts that he developed with his wife through “visitations” and automatic writing. Yeats claimed that she was often inhabited by spirits who came in order to describe a universal system of cyclical birth, based around a turning gyre.

What is the theme of the poem Gyre by William Wordsworth?

The poem concerns the poet’s prediction of the grim future that awaits humanity, and the first startling image that is used to introduce this theme uses the word “gyre” to indicate the way that culture is disintegrating. Consider the following lines: Turnign and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;