Tuesday, July 01, 2008

William Butler Yeats: The Second Coming

Photobucket

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center 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 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?

6 comments:

CAP said...

Isn't there some spray we can use of these guys?

Anonymous said...

Hey man, gas is going down in price....I guess we're not at peak oil yet, huh

Jacques de Beaufort said...

nope, guess again:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Wall-Street.html?hp

Steven LaRose said...

Last night, I was staring at that image and thought that the composition was miraculous. I even thought that I posted a comment about it.

Today, there is no comment but the intricate spiral of deep space seems even more interesting (certainly more in focus). I could learn a lot from the orchestrated atmospheric perspective.

Each component is engaging and separate, and yet, I am impressed at the over-all beauty which seems to temper the violence.

I wonder how big the original is?

Jacques de Beaufort said...

it's probably pretty small

those guys had alot of chops back then


they had more focus and less distraction

art has suffered due to modern technology

Mike said...

Coming to this post years later -- if you would, could you tell me the source of this painting/engraving? It's beautiful, but I can't find the artist anywhere, at least via Google. Thanks, -M.