W.B. Yeats: The Second Coming

The metaphor of the falcon not being able to hear the falconer means:

• Yeats is a terrible hunter

• The best method for finding the enemy in warfare

• Things are spiraling out of control

• Nature is ignorant to change

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The line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” has the following political implication:

• Resources are being spent too quickly.

• The old order is collapsing

• Yeats thinks his government has gone insane

• Power will remain in the same hands

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“Surely some revelation is at hand / Surely the second coming is at hand” is an example of:

• Irony

• Parallel structure

• Enjambment

• Pun

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“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” means:

• The “good” people of the world are powerless, while the “bad” people are powerful.

• The “good” guys lack the ability to fight, while the “bad” guys have weapons.

• The “good” countries lack leadership to do what is right, while the “bad” countries rise up to conquer.

• The “good” guys are never convicted of crimes while the “bad” guys always lose.

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The Spiritus Mundi is:

• A central memory that connects all people who can tune into it

• Christ

• Anti-Christ

• The spirit of the desert

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“A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun” is an example of:

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Enjambment

• Allusion

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The line “while all about it reel shadows of the indignant desert birds” reveals:

• The animals are oblivious to the changes in the world

• The animals sense a change for the worse

• The animals sense a change for the better

• The new messiah will be a bird

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Where will the new messiah be born?

• Jerusalem

• Canaan

• Bethlehem

• Rome

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What shape will the new messiah take?

• a falcon

• a sphinx

• a baby in a manger

• a world war

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What cycle or gyre does Yeats describe in this poem?

• The cycle of order and growth and then chaos and death followed by order and growth.

• The cycle of death followed by chaos followed by more death.

• The cycle of life followed by growth followed by more life.

• The cycle of democracy followed by communism and then fascism.

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