I Never Thought That The English Literature I Was Forced To Learn In High School Would Come In Handy
Published:
Me, aged 15, getting 3/25s on my English literature papers that I’m forced to do: Why the fuck do I have to do English literature? I don’t understand any of this shit.
Me, aged 17, still being forced to do English Lang Lit, albeit an easier version: I don’t give a shit about what this Yeats dude has to say with his gay-ass poems.
Me, aged 25, playing through another one of Cyberpunk 2077’s endings despite its many bugs: Damn, Sailing to Byzantium is a very fitting poem for the choice V has taken, opting to listen to Keanu.
Me, now aged 29, trying to make sense of this present moment: I guess I did get something out of Lang Lit after all—Yeats was cooking, as the kids would say.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Second Coming by William B. Yeats
I know this was written just after fucking World War 1 and the whole of Europe was itching for a revolution, but it hits hard these days. So much so that this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned poetry on my near 10 years of blogging Actually, I referenced someone who mentioned a poem in 2021 when they were talking about how you won’t get UX feedback so I guess I’ve technically mentioned poetry on my site before?. I’ve included the whole thing for two reasons:
- While the despair of the first stanza is what a lot of people resonate with now, the second stanza contains some hope that I also feel given that it’s time got something new to take shape.
- It’s public domain, no one can stop me.
I’d love to say that I thought of this on my own but I read a heard about it in a podcast
I remember reading a video during the COVID times on How to Read (and Even Enjoy) Poetry
At its heart poetry is meant to be understood and appreciated by everyone. much in the same way that you don’t need any special training to understand and appreciate a photograph of you and your friends.