Things Fall Apart

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

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 Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;

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

Wind 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?

The above poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath

of the first World War.

Literary Terms and Definitions

Epigram - a short statement or poem with a witty turn of thought or a wittily condensed expression. Example: “I can resist anything but temptation.”– Oscar Wilde

Fable – a short tale that illustrates a message or a moral. Fables usually incorporate elements of non-reality, such as talking animals. Examples: Aesop’s Fables, Animal Farm.

Folklore - the traditions, beliefs, and customs of a people. Example: Elizabethan audiences believed, accepted, and understood the folklore of fairies, which was essential to enjoy many of Shakespeare’s plays.

Foreshadowing - the use of hints or clues in a story to suggest what action is to come. Foreshadowing is frequently used to create interest and build suspense. Example: Two small and seemingly inconsequential car accidents predict and hint at the upcoming, important wreck in The Great Gatsby.

Irony - a perception of inconsistency, sometimes humorous, in which the significance and understanding of a statement or event is changed by its context. Example: The firehouse burned down.

· Dramatic Irony - the audience or reader knows more about a character’s situation than the character does and knows that the character’s understanding is incorrect. Example: In Medea, Creon asks, “What atrocities could she commit in one day?” The reader, however, knows Medea will destroy her family and Creon’s by day’s end.

· Structural Irony – the use of a naïve hero, whose incorrect perceptions differ from the reader’s correct ones. Example: Huck Finn.

· Verbal Irony - a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant; sarcasm. Example: A large man whose nickname is “Tiny.”

Legend - a story that is only partly true (or completely false) about a real or fictional character. Legends usually include exaggerations and unusual events or circumstances. Example: Paul Bunyan changes the course of the Pecos River.

Metaphor - a comparison of two things that are basically dissimilar in which one is described in terms of the other. Example: The moon, a haunting lantern, shone through the clouds.

Myth - a story with supernatural occurrences, which helped early cultures understand themselves. Example: Sisyphus must push the same rock up the same hill every day as punishment for angering Greek gods.

Oral tradition - the transference of stories, songs, etc., from one generation to another or from one culture to another.

Personification - a figure of speech in which an object, abstract idea, or animal is given human characteristics. Examples: The wall did its best to keep out the invaders. “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.” –Emily Dickinson

Protagonist - the central or main character in a story around whom the plot centers. Examples: Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter; David Copperfield in David Copperfield.

Proverb - a short saying that states a basic truth about life. Example: “He who hesitates is lost.

Simile - a comparison between two different things using either like or as. Examples: I am as hungry as a horse. The huge trees broke like twigs during the hurricane.

Symbol - an object, person, or place that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, usually an idea or concept; some concrete thing which represents an abstraction. Example: The sea could be symbolic for “the unknown.” Since the sea is something that is physical and can be seen by the reader, and also has elements that cannot be understood, it can be used symbolically to stand for the abstraction of “mystery,” “obscurity,” or “the unknown.”

Theme - the central or dominant idea behind the story; the most important aspect that emerges from how the book treats its subject. Sometimes theme is easy to see, but, at other times, it may be more difficult. Theme is usually expressed indirectly, as an element the reader must figure out. It is a universal statement about humanity, rather than a simple statement dealing with plot or characters in the story. Themes are generally hinted at through different methods: a phrase or quotation that introduces the novel, a recurring element in the book, or an observation made that is reinforced through plot, dialogue, or characters. It must be emphasized that not all works of literature have themes in them. Example: In a story about a man who is diagnosed with cancer and, through medicine and will-power, returns to his former occupation, the theme might be: “Real courage is demonstrated through internal bravery and perseverance.” In a poem about a flower that grows, blooms, and dies, the theme might be: “Youth fades, and death comes to all.”

Tragedy - a serious work, usually a play, in which the main character experiences defeat, brought about by a tragic flaw. Example: Hamlet.

Tragic flaw - the main defect of the protagonist in a tragedy. Example: Hamlet’s failure to act causes his death.

Tragic hero - the main character in a tragedy; in order to fit the definition, the hero must have a tragic flaw, which causes his or her downfall. Examples: Hamlet’s main character weakness is his indecision; Lear’s is his pride.

Practice your literary terms