Yeats' Use of Symbolism in 'Leda and the Swan' and 'the Second Coming'

W. B. Yeats, a somewhat eclectic poet, explores, throughout his work, a wide range of themes and ideas. He reflects on his nation’s politics, Irish mysticism, the afterlife, love, and his own past. While each set of his poems share many recurring images, however, it is Yeats’ examination and opinions of the gyres of time and history that crop up in all forms of his poetry. While references to this great spiraling metaphor for the fabric of the universe can be found in some of Yeats’ most famous works, such as ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘Long-legged Fly’ and ‘Easter 1916’, to name just a few, it is an aspect of his poetry which is relevant to almost all of his writing. However, it is in Yeats’ apocalyptic poems, ‘Leda and the Swan’ and ‘The Second Coming’ that this metaphor for the history of time is most explored. The poems relate the tales of two points in time that Yeats feels to be important turning points in history, epicenters of calamity and destruction, as the stability of civilization in torn apart and humanity enters a new era of was and horror. The first of the poems, ‘The Second Coming’, was written in 1920 and the very title indicates to the reader something of sinister nature, and links in very much with the final chapter of the Bible, Revelations, which acts as a foresight of judgment day. It is also possible that the tragedies of World War One, which had only ended two years prior to the printing of the poem, also influenced Yeats’ lack of optimism about a long future peace. From line one, Yeats talks of a “widening gyre”, “turning and turning” as history, past, present, and future, revolves slowly. The great gyres referred to by Yeats are used to represent his view that a single miniscule point in history can spiral outward exponentially to cause great long term catastrophe. Yeats also notions toward his beliefs in the link between mysticism and astrology as the “turning and turning” represents the spinning planets, along with the 23 phases of the