the poem Yeats writes Things fall apart the centre cannot hold This means the world is breaking Rules and order are gone People have lost control Then he says The best lack all conviction while the worst Are full of passionate intensity Good people are silent Bad people are loud and strong This is dangerous Yeats thinks something new is coming But it is not the second coming of Jesus Christ It is something dark and strange He writes And what rough beast its hour come round at last Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born This line is very famous It means that a new beast-like power is coming It will be born in Bethlehem the same place as Christ But it is not a saviour It brings fear not hope So the poem shows the end of peace and the start of chaos It is about fear of the unknown future Form Meter Rhyme Scheme The poem has stanzas The lines do not follow a fixed rhyme scheme The meter is mostly iambic but not regular This free form matches the poem s theme The world has lost order So the poem has a broken structure too Symbols amp Imagery Yeats uses powerful symbols and images His symbols and images naked the poem evergreen and masterpiece His iconic symbols and images are Falcon and falconer The falcon flying far from the falconer shows loss of control Yeats says The falcon cannot hear the falconer This means people are not listening to rules or leaders Everyone is doing what they want Blood-dimmed tide This image shows violence and war Spiritus Mundi It means world spirit It gives Yeats a vision of the future Rough beast This beast is a symbol of a new wild power coming into the world It is scary and unknown It may bring destruction or a new era These images help us feel the fear and confusion of the time Language and Tone The language of the poem is rich poetic and full of emotion Yeats uses big ideas in short lines His tone is Dark He sees a bad future Worried He feels the world is falling apart Mysterious He gives strange images and doesn t explain them clearly Words like darkness anarchy blood beast show fear and danger The Second Coming is a powerful poem Yeats shows how the world is losing its balance He sees the end of the old and the birth of a new dark age The poem warns us that when good people stay silent evil rises It tells us to be careful because the future may not bring peace it may bring something worse Yeats mixes history religion and fear to give us a deep and unforgettable message