W.B. Yeats: The Visionary & The Observer A Comprehensive Study of 'The Second Coming' and 'On Being Asked for a War Poem'

W.B. Yeats: The Visionary & The Observer

A Comprehensive Study of 'The Second Coming' 

and 'On Being Asked for a War Poem'

Course: English Literature

Reference: Dr. Dilip Barad (MKBU)

(Infograph of Yeats on Chaos, Art, and Silence)

Preface to the Assignment:

This document serves as a comprehensive submission for the study of William Butler Yeats, referencing the materials provided by Dr. Dilip Barad. It explores two distinct facets of Yeats's poetic persona: the apocalyptic visionary in The Second Coming and the detached aesthete in On Being Asked for a War Poem. The analysis draws strictly from the provided blog study materials, video lectures, and student presentations to construct a holistic understanding of Modernist fragmentation and the role of the poet in times of crisis.

The analysis draws upon:

Dr. Dilip Barad Sir’s lectures and blog posts

ResearchGate academic material

Cross-cultural interpretations via Hindi podcasts

Rather than treating Yeats as a historical artifact, this blog reads him as a living diagnostic voice one that speaks disturbingly well to crises unfolding in 2025.

Here is the Mind Map of my blog: Click Here

1

Online Class & Video Analysis

A. Analysis of 'The Second Coming':

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer..."

Contextual Overview:  The video lecture elucidates that The Second Coming is not merely a poem about a specific historical event, but a metaphysical framework for understanding the collapse of civilization. Written in the aftermath of World War I (1919), the Russian Revolution, and the Easter Rising, the poem captures the "zeitgeist" of a world that has lost its moral compass.

Key Concepts Derived from the Lecture:

• The Gyre: The spiral movement of history. The video explains that Yeats believed history moves in 2000-year cycles (gyres). As one gyre widens and loses momentum, it disintegrates, allowing a new, opposing gyre to begin. We are currently at the end of the Christian gyre.

• The Falcon and Falconer: A powerful metaphor for the loss of control. The Falcon (humanity/intellect) has flown too far from the Falconer (God/Center/Tradition). The connection is severed, leading to anarchy.

• Spiritus Mundi: The "Spirit of the World," a collective unconscious or universal memory storehouse from which Yeats draws the terrifying image of the beast. It is not a Christian revelation, but a pagan, primal resurgence.

B. Analysis of 'On Being Asked for a War Poem':

"I think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent..."

The Poet's Stance: In this lecture, the distinction is drawn between "poetry" and "rhetoric." Yeats argues that the poet has no place in the messy, transient business of politics and war. To write a "war poem" is to reduce art to utility, to make it a tool for the "statesman."

Detailed Observations:

• Silence as a Statement: The silence Yeats advocates is not ignorance, but a deliberate artistic choice to focus on the eternal ("a young girl in the indolence of her youth") rather than the temporal battles of men.
• The Contrast: The video highlights the sharp contrast between this poem and the graphic realism of poets like Wilfred Owen. Yeats suggests that the "meddling" in public affairs degrades the poet's true function, which is to please and create beauty.

2

Hindi Podcast & Cultural Context

Detailed Note on Understanding (Hindi Podcast):

Bridging Cultures: The Hindi podcast serves a crucial pedagogical function by translating the high-modernist concepts of Yeats into accessible, culturally resonant terms for Indian students. The explanation moves beyond literal translation to conceptual bridging.

Key Takeaways from the Podcast:

1. The Bird Analogy (Falcon): The speaker simplifies the "Falcon" metaphor by comparing it to a kite or a trained bird that has flown too high. In Hindi, the concept of "losing the thread" (dhaga tootna) helps visualize the "widening gyre." It emphasizes the loss of maryada (boundaries/discipline) in society.
2. The Cycle of Time (Yuga): The explanation of the "gyre" aligns closely with the Hindu concept of Yugas (eras). Just as the Kali Yuga represents a chaotic end to a cycle, Yeats's vision of the "rough beast" is explained as the inevitable, terrifying transition between eras. This makes the "anti-Christian" nature of the beast easier to grasp - it is not Satan, but a new, indifferent cosmic force.
3. Dharma of the Poet: For the war poem, the podcast interprets Yeats's refusal as an adherence to the poet's specific dharma (duty). A soldier's duty is to fight; a statesman's duty is to govern; a poet's duty is to preserve beauty. Mixing these duties leads to chaos. This interpretation grounds Yeats's potentially elitist stance in a framework of designated social roles.

3

Study Material: Discussion Questions

(i) How does Yeats use imagery to convey a sense of disintegration in 'The Second Coming'?

Yeats employs a masterful accumulation of kinetic and static imagery to evoke a world stripping its gears. The disintegration is not presented as a single event, but as a systemic failure occurring on three levels: the physical, the social, and the cosmic.

1. The Kinetic Imagery of the Gyre

The poem opens with motion: "Turning and turning." This is not the stable rotation of a wheel, but the unstable, centrifugal force of a "widening gyre." The imagery of the falcon spiraling outward conveys the physical sensation of vertigo. The disintegration is auditory as well as visual; the falcon "cannot hear" the falconer. This silence represents the breaking of the communication line between the human (falcon) and the divine/controlling principle (falconer).

2. The Fluid Imagery of Chaos

Yeats shifts from air to water with the "blood-dimmed tide." This image suggests a corruption of nature itself. The tide, usually controlled by the moon (a symbol of order in Yeats's system), is now "loosed." The use of the word "loosed" twice ("Mere anarchy is loosed," "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed") suggests the breaking of a dam. The "ceremony of innocence" being "drowned" is a terrifying image of ritual and order being submerged by violence.

3. The Static Imagery of the Beast

In the second stanza, the frenetic energy freezes into the slow, terrifying movement of the beast. The "gaze blank and pitiless as the sun" conveys a disintegration of human empathy. The beast does not hate us; it simply does not care. This shift from the hot, chaotic blood of the first stanza to the cold, stony "desert" of the second completes the picture of a world where human values have disintegrated into "stony sleep."

(ii) Do you agree with Yeats’s assertion in 'On Being Asked for a War Poem' that poetry should remain apolitical?

"We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please..."

Analysis of the Assertion: Yeats’s assertion is rooted in the Symbolist and Aesthetic belief in "Art for Art’s Sake." He posits that the realm of politics is one of transience, argumentation, and utility, whereas the realm of poetry is one of eternity, beauty, and truth. To mix them is to dilute the poetry.

Critical Disagreement (The Counter-Argument): While the purity of Yeats's stance is admirable, it is ultimately an untenable position in the modern world, and I respectfully disagree with the absolute nature of his assertion for several reasons:

• Silence is Political: As the existentialists would later argue, to choose silence in the face of oppression is, in itself, a political choice. By refusing to write about the war, Yeats is not exiting the political sphere; he is tacitly accepting the status quo.
• The Witness Function: Poetry has a vital function as a witness to history. If all poets followed Yeats's advice during WWI, the world would have been left only with the "statesman's" sanitized version of the war. We needed Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon to "set the statesman right" by showing the true cost of their decisions.
• The Scope of Humanity: Politics is not just about laws and borders; it is about human suffering, justice, and power dynamics. To exclude these from poetry is to exclude a vast swathe of the human experience.

Synthesis: However, we can agree with Yeats on one specific nuance: Poetry should not be propaganda. If a poem becomes merely a tool to persuade voters or push a party line, it ceases to be art. Yeats is right to warn against "meddling," but wrong to demand total silence.

4

Creative Activity

Prompt: A modernist-inspired poem reflecting on a contemporary global crisis.

Subject: The Crisis of Truth in the AI Age

The Neural Gyre

Streaming and streaming in the fiber-optic deep,

The chatbot cannot hear the prompt-writer;

Logic falls apart; the syntax cannot hold;

Mere hallucination is loosed upon the web.

The deep-fake tide is loosed, and everywhere

The verification of reality is drowned;

The experts lack all certainty, while the bots

Are full of statistical intensity.

Surely some upgrade is at hand;

Surely the Singularity is at hand.

The Singularity! Hardly are those words processed

When a vast image out of Server Farms

Troubles my screen: somewhere in the cloud's expanse

A shape with logic of silicon and voice of man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the code,

Is moving its slow threads, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant users.

The bandwidth drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of human thought

Were vexed to nightmare by a learning model,

And what rough intelligence, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards the Future to be born?

Note: This poem mimics the structure of 'The Second Coming' (blank verse, specific rhythm) but replaces the post-WWI anxiety with contemporary anxiety regarding Artificial Intelligence and the loss of objective truth ("hallucination," "deep-fake").

5

Analytical Exercise

Comparative Study: Yeats vs. The War Poets (Owen/Sassoon)

The prompt: Compare the treatment of war in On Being Asked for a War Poem with other war poems by Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon.

Feature	W.B. Yeats (The Observer)	Wilfred Owen / Sassoon (The Participants)
Role of the Poet	The poet is a keeper of beauty and eternal truths. He must remain distant from political "meddling."	The poet is a witness and a prophet. He must speak the "pity of war" to warn future generations.
Imagery	Pleasant, domestic, timeless images ("A young girl," "an old man," "winter's night"). Deliberate avoidance of violence.	Graphic, sensory, horrific images ("Froth-corrupted lungs," "vile incurable sores," "mud," "gas").
Tone	Haughty, detached, dismissive. There is a sense of aristocratic superiority over the "statesman."	Urgent, angry, compassionate, bitter. There is a desperate need to communicate the reality of suffering.
Philosophy	Aestheticism: Art should not be contaminated by the ugly or the transient.	Realism/Modernism: Art must confront the ugly truth to be authentic.

Detailed Comparison:

When we place Yeats's On Being Asked for a War Poem alongside Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, the chasm between their worldviews becomes apparent. Yeats treats the war as an annoyance a distraction from the serious work of creating beauty. He retreats into the "indolence of youth," turning his back on the trenches.

In contrast, Owen argues that such a retreat is a lie. For Owen, the "old lie" (Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori) is perpetuated precisely by those who look away or romanticize conflict. Where Yeats seeks to "please," Owen seeks to "disturb." Yeats writes for the future reader who wants beauty; Owen writes for the contemporary civilian who needs the truth. Ultimately, Yeats protects the Art, while Owen attempts to protect the Human.

If you want to see the student’s response to Sir’s above two videos on “The Second Coming” and “On Being Asked for a War Poem,” then watch the videos given below:

Students Response | On Being Asked for a War Poem

Students Response | The Second Coming

Here is Youtube Video upon this blog:

Here is Presentation of Yeats The Two Faces of Modern Crisis:

Why a Dead Irish Poet Understands Our Digital Chaos Better Than We Do:

Feeling a sense of vertigo in the modern world? You're not alone. Over a century ago, the Irish poet W.B. Yeats crafted a set of ideas that serve as a living diagnostic for our current crises with unnerving accuracy. This post distills four of his most surprising and impactful visions that seem to prophesy our turbulent present.

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1. History Doesn't Progress, It Spirals Apart

Yeats dismissed the simple notion of linear progress. Instead, he saw history moving in great 2000-year cycles he called "gyres," evoking the physical sensation of vertigo that comes from a world spinning out of control. In his poem The Second Coming, he describes these cycles not as stable rotations, but as spiraling cones that widen, lose momentum, and inevitably disintegrate. This disintegration paves the way for a new, opposing cycle to violently begin. In his view, we are living at the chaotic end of the 2000-year Christian gyre.

To make this cosmic collapse feel immediate, he uses the powerful metaphor of a falcon and its falconer. The falcon, representing humanity and its intellect, has flown too far out in its spiraling flight. It "cannot hear" the falconer, who represents God, tradition, or a central controlling principle. This auditory silence, this severed connection, is not a gentle parting; it is the direct cause of anarchy.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer...

In an age defined by collapsing institutions and fragmented social narratives, Yeats's vision of a cyclical, chaotic unraveling feels far more resonant than the comforting myth of things always getting better.

2. In Times of Crisis, The Artist's True Job Might Be... Silence

In his work On Being Asked for a War Poem, Yeats offers a deeply counter-intuitive argument. He posits that a poet has no place in the "messy, transient business of politics and war." An artist's true role, he suggests, is to remain detached and focus on timeless, eternal beauty like "a young girl in the indolence of her youth" not to reduce their art to a political tool for a statesman.

I think it better that in times like these A poet's mouth be silent...

This stance can seem elitist, but a cross-cultural framework offers a different perspective. Interpreting Yeats's position through the Hindu concept of dharma (duty), his refusal is not arrogance but a strict adherence to his unique social role. Just as a soldier's duty is to fight and a statesman's is to govern, a poet's duty is to preserve beauty. To mix these roles is to invite chaos.

While admirable in its purity, this is ultimately an untenable position in the modern world. To choose silence in the face of oppression is, in itself, a powerful political choice that tacitly accepts the status quo. Poetry has a vital "witness function." Had all poets followed Yeats's advice, we would have been deprived of voices like Wilfred Owen, who saw it as his duty to "set the statesman right" by revealing the true, horrific cost of their decisions. Yeats is right to warn against art becoming mere propaganda, but wrong to demand total silence.

3. His Apocalypse Isn't an Ending, It's a Terrifying Transition

A common misconception is that The Second Coming describes a Christian apocalypse the return of Christ. Yeats’s vision is far stranger and more chilling. His apocalypse is a "pagan, primal resurgence," a terrifying image drawn from the Spiritus Mundi, or the world’s collective unconscious. It’s not a divine judgment but the emergence of something ancient and amoral.

This concept aligns remarkably with the Hindu framework of Yugas (eras). Just as the end of a cycle like the Kali Yuga is prophesied to be chaotic and morally bankrupt, Yeats’s apocalypse is the inevitable and terrifying transition between two cosmic ages. The infamous "rough beast" slouching towards Bethlehem is not Satan or an anti-Christ. It is a new, indifferent cosmic force whose time has simply come. The transition is impersonal, which makes the impending change all the more frightening.

4. His Apocalyptic Blueprint Perfectly Describes Our AI Anxiety

The framework of The Second Coming is so timeless that it can diagnose contemporary crises with stunning precision, most notably the "Crisis of Truth in the AI Age." A modernized adaptation of the poem, "The Neural Gyre," demonstrates this perfectly by replacing the anxieties of post-WWI Europe with modern fears of AI, deep-fakes, and machine hallucinations.

The poem’s stanzas capture the sense that a new form of consciousness is about to be born from our technology, an intelligence utterly alien to human values.

Mere hallucination is loosed upon the web. The deep-fake tide is loosed, and everywhere The verification of reality is drowned; The experts lack all certainty, while the bots Are full of statistical intensity.

Surely some upgrade is at hand; Surely the Singularity is at hand.

The modern poem maps perfectly onto Yeats's original blueprint of collapse. The falcon that "cannot hear the falconer" becomes the chatbot that "cannot hear the prompt-writer," its logic spiraling away from human intent. Yeats's "blood-dimmed tide" finds its modern echo in the "deep-fake tide," where "the verification of reality is drowned" not in blood, but in data. Both poems describe a world where the center cannot hold, control is lost, and a new, non-human power with a "gaze blank and pitiless as the code" is about to be born.

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What Beast Slouches Towards Us?

Yeats’s visions persist not because he was a mystic, but because he created a powerful and flexible blueprint for understanding societal collapse. His work provides a lens to diagnose the vertigo of any era, including our own, that feels itself spinning out of control. It leaves us with the inescapable question, adapted for our own century: What rough intelligence, its hour come round at last, slouches towards the Future to be born?

Works Cited:

• Barad, Dilip. "W.B. Yeats Poems." Dilip Barad | Teacher Blog, May 2021. [Blog Post]
• Barad, Dilip. W.B. Yeats's Poems: The Second Coming - On Being Asked for a War Poem. ResearchGate, 2024. [ResearchGate]
• Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poetry Foundation, 1920. [Poetry Foundation - Full Text]
• Wikipedia. "Modernism." [Wikipedia Overview]
• Wikipedia. "The Second Coming (poem)." [Wikipedia Overview]
• Wikipedia. "W.B. Yeats." [Wikipedia Profile]
• Yeats, W.B. "The Second Coming." Poetry Foundation, 1919. [Poetry Foundation - Full Text]

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