The Second ComingI don't really have much to add in terms of commentary. I don't mean to be maudlin. Certainly I'm more upbeat about the future than Bill B. Yeats was after World War I.
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 convictions, 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 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 around 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
I think the phrase that's sticking with me in particular is "The best lack all convictions, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity." That seems to be particularly descriptive of bloggers, no?
tagged: poetry, William Butler Yeats, World War I, The Sopranos, culture
I agree to the extent that the blogiverse represents our society as a whole. I think there is an unspoken fear among the population that things are spinning out of control, and that the powers that be are more concerned with power itself than with actual leadership. This does not bode well for our future.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
BTW, I finally get you up on my sidebar and I see this depressing stuff. Geez. :)
Sorry for the downer Randall. But you know how it is when you have certain phrases or songs stuck in your head, best way to get them out and move on is to write/talk/sing about them.
ReplyDeleteI have more cheereful stuff on the way, as soon as I can start avoiding work again.
Thanks for stopping by tho.
Ciao!
Funny you should mention this today. I just read Ann Althouse's, um, analysis of that episode; linking to her post in this, um, response, Scott says some things that might cheer you and Randall up for a moment.
ReplyDeleteI have neglected to mention, by the way, that your new banner is très cool. Its presence would seem to indicate that you've decided you like your blog's new look.
Just another reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same. But like you I am more optimistic than Yeats.
ReplyDeleteGOD, I love Yeats! "...The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
ReplyDeleteThe ceremony of innocence is drowned..."
He makes depressing commentary sound so pretty. :)
RE:"stuck in your head"
ReplyDeleteTag, Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have one....
Now that will be stuck in your head instead & not mine!