The Second Coming

Question 1

Precis

Answer 1

Yeats’ The Second Coming, written in free verse and loose iambic pentameter, envisions the breakdown of society and the rise of a monstrous new order, reflecting on historical cycles of civilisation.

Question 2

Present participles

Answer 2

emphasis on quickness of downfall

Question 3

repetition

Answer 3

process repeating throughout history/quickness of process

Question 4

now I know
That

Answer 4

Now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle

Question 5

A shape

Answer 5

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
Is moving its slow thighs

Question 6

And what rough

Answer 6

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?