The End of Time
The question of how the world will end has been discussed and debated countless times throughout the centuries. Some say a meteor will strike or global warming will cause our planet to explode, while others talk of a great ice age that will cover the earth in silent frostiness. Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” and “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats, are poems that seek to explore the apocalyptic destruction of the world from different viewpoints.
Although they both share the ‘end of time’ theme, the speakers come from diverse backgrounds which influence their approach to the subject. Considered one of America’s most renowned poets, Robert Frost was known for his adherence to traditional metrics and form in his poetry. …show more content…
It opens in a medieval setting, with a flying flacon that cannot hear its master, but then suddenly switches to depict anarchy with absolute chaos and pandemonium. This devastation is exhibited in the line, “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned” describing a grisly war zone filled with violence and death (5,6). The speaker makes a note of how the corrupt ones are full of “passionate intensity,” while those on the side of good “lack conviction” (7,8). In the second stanza of the poem, a new scene is described where all the violence portrayed in the first half of the poem are presented as proof that “surely the Second Coming is at hand” (10). The speaker further envisions a sphinx, a mythical creature in disturbing detail, “a shape of a lion body, with the head of a man,” which sight “troubles” the speaker (13,14). The idea purported in this vision is that the beast is coming to fulfill biblical prophecy instead of Christ. The speaker seems disturbed as he envisions this desert scene, and then states that “the darkness drops again” as this hallucination comes to an end (18). Yeats finishes on a rhetorical note, asking, “what rough beast” will be born in Bethlehem (21). The language throughout is straightforward and frank, and written in blank verse style with no rhyme scheme, but holds a …show more content…
While Frost portrays the end as a sudden termination due to disaster brought on natural or man-made causes, Yeats’ poem depicts calamity, bloodshed, and great evil in nightmarish proportions. The tone of “Fire and Ice” is detached and ironic, with an acceptance of the inevitable conclusion, while “The Second Coming” has a foreboding tone of worry and leaves the reader troubled.
Yeats and Frost close their poems with the speakers in a state of contemplation, but the moods are in stark contrast to each other. Yeats’ speaker is noticeably disturbed and questioning, while Frost’s is calm and looks inward. Despite the differences in their moods, both have learned a valuable lesson through what they have experienced and witnessed through the window of imagination of the end of the world. As a reader, we too are afforded the ability to imagine this same scenario through our own eyes and reflect upon the implications of the apocalypse of our
The question of how the world will end has been discussed and debated countless times throughout the centuries. Some say a meteor will strike or global warming will cause our planet to explode, while others talk of a great ice age that will cover the earth in silent frostiness. Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” and “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats, are poems that seek to explore the apocalyptic destruction of the world from different viewpoints.
Although they both share the ‘end of time’ theme, the speakers come from diverse backgrounds which influence their approach to the subject. Considered one of America’s most renowned poets, Robert Frost was known for his adherence to traditional metrics and form in his poetry. …show more content…
It opens in a medieval setting, with a flying flacon that cannot hear its master, but then suddenly switches to depict anarchy with absolute chaos and pandemonium. This devastation is exhibited in the line, “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned” describing a grisly war zone filled with violence and death (5,6). The speaker makes a note of how the corrupt ones are full of “passionate intensity,” while those on the side of good “lack conviction” (7,8). In the second stanza of the poem, a new scene is described where all the violence portrayed in the first half of the poem are presented as proof that “surely the Second Coming is at hand” (10). The speaker further envisions a sphinx, a mythical creature in disturbing detail, “a shape of a lion body, with the head of a man,” which sight “troubles” the speaker (13,14). The idea purported in this vision is that the beast is coming to fulfill biblical prophecy instead of Christ. The speaker seems disturbed as he envisions this desert scene, and then states that “the darkness drops again” as this hallucination comes to an end (18). Yeats finishes on a rhetorical note, asking, “what rough beast” will be born in Bethlehem (21). The language throughout is straightforward and frank, and written in blank verse style with no rhyme scheme, but holds a …show more content…
While Frost portrays the end as a sudden termination due to disaster brought on natural or man-made causes, Yeats’ poem depicts calamity, bloodshed, and great evil in nightmarish proportions. The tone of “Fire and Ice” is detached and ironic, with an acceptance of the inevitable conclusion, while “The Second Coming” has a foreboding tone of worry and leaves the reader troubled.
Yeats and Frost close their poems with the speakers in a state of contemplation, but the moods are in stark contrast to each other. Yeats’ speaker is noticeably disturbed and questioning, while Frost’s is calm and looks inward. Despite the differences in their moods, both have learned a valuable lesson through what they have experienced and witnessed through the window of imagination of the end of the world. As a reader, we too are afforded the ability to imagine this same scenario through our own eyes and reflect upon the implications of the apocalypse of our