The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 1/17/10

[BlueIris]

"The Second Coming"

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,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

--W.B. Yeats

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. wow

timeless. thanks.

[BlueIris]

2. Yep. This one has been chasing me around lately.

So I thought I'd give it a re-read. (Re-post? Retro may have posted it here at some point.)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. gotta admit. it is hard to beat Yeats.

do damn good.

[RetroLounge]

4. Surely a classic that bears reposting

:hi:

RL