“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats is one of the most famous and well-known poems. He describes an apocalyptic situation in the first stanza while also assuring readers of the hope of the arrival of a messianic figure in the second. The gloomy and dark picture painted by Yeats creates a fear in the reader's mind of the decline of worldly conditions while the optimistic language later tried to give hope. This feeling of apocalypse came to Yeats as the world moved forward at a rapid speed and he felt the need to slow down a bit. Thus was born the poem “The Second Coming”. The poem begins with a terrifying scene in which “things fall apart” as the hawk, symbolizing evil, turns toward the “widening vortex.” This creates a terrifying shyness in the reader from the beginning. The first stanza continues further to instigate more fearful feelings as goodness is sinking when the speaker says, “innocence is drowned.” On the other hand, evildoers or “the worst are full of passionate intensity.” From this first verse it is clear that a satanic takeover is underway...