Irish poet William Butler Yeats is definitely on my list of poet geniuses. I have a CD of his reading of the poem that reinforced my belief that poetry should be performed. I wish I had the tech skill to include it as an audioblog, but I don't so here is the written poem. Appropos in these dark days.THE SECOND COMING
By W.B. Yeats
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: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with a lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless in 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?
2 comments:
No, but it sounds like fun. I'd like to add Yeat's reading. I'll see if the phone will pick it up.
I listened to your test. Did you set up a separate audioblog?
No. You can audioblog right from the one you have. Just follow the three easy steps.
Post a Comment