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?
--William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
8 years ago
4 comments:
Dark mood, J? I must admit, the picture is beautifully haunting, but the poem disturbs me. Why did you choose it?
I appreciated this part: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
I have often feared that, and hope that I don't help make it true.
Once again, though, you've posted another while I'm still ruminating on a comment for the last one.
Is the flute a Bass? Contra-Bass? Is he doing all the parts with some sort of recorder/playback?
Truly, I was torn on posting it, since upon first reading it it seems to have anti-Christian undertones. But when you read more about WB Yeats' strange philosophies and the most common interpretation of the poem, you'll see that he was a European elitist who felt that the Golden Age of Europe (which began with the birth of Christ) was ending and being replaced by Communism and socialism or something more sinister. He wrote it around WWI...
I found the poem because it provided the title of an anti-Colonial African fiction piece called "Things Fall Apart" (about the downfall of African civilization before Westernism/Christianity)--which is ironic since Chinua Achebe used the line in the exact opposite of its intended meaning, while still keeping true to its underlying theme!
So that's how I found it. What I loved about the poem, then, was the line you mentioned (about the best lacking all conviction...). I had this thought a while ago while in the midst of a religious debate with a very dogmatic friend. I felt hobbled by my intellectual honesty, whereas this individual--full of fire and testimony--was not being completely honest...or so I felt. When I read this poem later, I now had words to align with my previous emotion.
That being said, my reason for posting the poem now is because I feel it applies to the war in Iraq. The poem carries a feeling of impotent suspense: of giant sphynx-like entities (war machines) in the desert and the desert birds fleeing.
Furthermore, I see the current administration as "the worst...full of passionate intensity" whose plans for Iraq (the falcon) have gotten completely out of control and loosed anarchy on the world.
And, of course, there is the feeling of Apocalyptic end-of-world fervor and excitement among the Muslim insurgents and among Christians in the States, as some people wave off the bloodshed as a sign of the end of times.
I just thought the poem fit the state of affairs, in general, and my own personal feelings of despondency towards the war and administration.
The contra-bass flute video...
Chrissa thinks he's only playing the melody and the rest is on play-back. Until she said that, I had thought he was somehow doing both (even though I wasn't sure how), since it looked like his lower hand was acting independently of his upper hand. But Chrissa's the musician, so I'd think she's probably right.
I think the only wind instrument you can play two parts on is the bagpipes.
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