Passage 056 · 1920
"The Second Coming"
Main effectThrough repeated participles, modal negatives, paratactic catastrophes, and passive apocalypse, Yeats creates syntax of civilizational collapse. The form enacts the content: syntactic structures that parallel each other while describing disintegration, semicolons connecting what's falling apart, passives that hide agency in chaos. This is grammar as historical prophecy—syntax that performs the breakdown it describes while maintaining formal control that suggests apocalypse can be articulated, witnessed, recorded even as it unfolds.
Device index
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Tropes
Implicit comparison.
No words highlightedAttribution of human qualities to abstractions.
Language of end times.
No words highlightedSchemes
Repetition at beginning of clauses.
Syntax
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre"—the repeated present participle creates ongoing circular motion. The polysyndeton ("and turning") emphasizes the repetition. The modifier "widening" (present participle modifying "gyre") creates expansion—the circle grows larger, more unstable.
"The falcon cannot hear the falconer"—the modal "cannot" expresses impossibility, not prohibition. The syntax makes this about breakdown of communication, relationship, order. The semicolon creates pause while maintaining connection to what follows.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"—two independent clauses connected by semicolon. The first ("Things fall apart") is remarkably simple: subject-verb-adverb. This simplicity makes it devastating. The second clause parallels the first syntactically: subject + modal negative + verb. The anaphoric "cannot" links this to previous line.
"the centre"—this definite article + abstract noun as subject. What centre? The syntax doesn't specify, making it universal: THE centre (of civilization, of order, of meaning).
Yeats uses semicolons rather than periods, creating connected series of catastrophes. The syntax refuses full stops—one disaster flows into the next.
No words highlighted"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world"—the passive voice emphasizes the result (anarchy loosed) rather than agent (who loosed it?). The past participle "loosed" (archaic for "loosened" or "released") suggests deliberate unleashing. The adjective "Mere" before "anarchy" is ironic—not "mere" (ordinary/insignificant) but MERE (pure, absolute). The prepositional phrase "upon the world" specifies scope—not local but global catastrophe.
The passage moves from: 1. Present progressive action (turning) 2. Present inability (cannot hear, cannot hold) 3. Present simple disaster (fall apart) 4. Present passive unleashing (is loosed) This syntactic progression through tenses and voices creates gathering catastrophe.
No words highlightedThe enjambment between lines creates tension—"widening gyre / The falcon" runs over without pause, but the sentence structure creates units that don't match line breaks, creating formal instability matching thematic chaos.
Close reading
1Close Reading
Present Participle Opening
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre"—the repeated present participle creates ongoing circular motion. The polysyndeton ("and turning") emphasizes the repetition.
The modifier "widening" (present participle modifying "gyre") creates expansion—the circle grows larger, more unstable.
Modal Negative
"The falcon cannot hear the falconer"—the modal "cannot" expresses impossibility, not prohibition. The syntax makes this about breakdown of communication, relationship, order.
The semicolon creates pause while maintaining connection to what follows.
Paratactic Fragments
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"—two independent clauses connected by semicolon. The first ("Things fall apart") is remarkably simple: subject-verb-adverb. This simplicity makes it devastating.
The second clause parallels the first syntactically: subject + modal negative + verb. The anaphoric "cannot" links this to previous line.
Abstract Subject
"the centre"—this definite article + abstract noun as subject. What centre? The syntax doesn't specify, making it universal: THE centre (of civilization, of order, of meaning).
Another Semicolon
Yeats uses semicolons rather than periods, creating connected series of catastrophes. The syntax refuses full stops—one disaster flows into the next.
Passive Construction
"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world"—the passive voice emphasizes the result (anarchy loosed) rather than agent (who loosed it?). The past participle "loosed" (archaic for "loosened" or "released") suggests deliberate unleashing.
The adjective "Mere" before "anarchy" is ironic—not "mere" (ordinary/insignificant) but MERE (pure, absolute).
The prepositional phrase "upon the world" specifies scope—not local but global catastrophe.
Progressive Syntax
The passage moves from:
1. Present progressive action (turning)
2. Present inability (cannot hear, cannot hold)
3. Present simple disaster (fall apart)
4. Present passive unleashing (is loosed)
This syntactic progression through tenses and voices creates gathering catastrophe.
Line Breaks and Syntax
The enjambment between lines creates tension—"widening gyre / The falcon" runs over without pause, but the sentence structure creates units that don't match line breaks, creating formal instability matching thematic chaos.
Stylistic Effect
Through repeated participles, modal negatives, paratactic catastrophes, and passive apocalypse, Yeats creates syntax of civilizational collapse. The form enacts the content: syntactic structures that parallel each other while describing disintegration, semicolons connecting what's falling apart, passives that hide agency in chaos. This is grammar as historical prophecy—syntax that performs the breakdown it describes while maintaining formal control that suggests apocalypse can be articulated, witnessed, recorded even as it unfolds.