From the title of W.B. Yeats poem, "The Second Coming", one might expect to read about the glorious return of Christ to save his followers. However, Yeats portrays a dismal world where anarchy reigns over the innocence of man. The passage portrays a dark and foreboding atmosphere that serves as a warning to what may lie ahead for humankind if we continue on our current path.

The poem appears to be written in free verse which adds to the poems references to "things falling apart" and "anarchy loosed upon the world." This lack of structure within the poem helps the reader feel as if they are a part of Yeats' condemned world.

Yeats uses this poem to show his views of the world and its "right" paths of science, democracy and heterogeneity which are now beginning to come apart. This is shown in the first stanza. The...