Yeats


 * “The Second Coming”**
 * 1) In your own words, describe the picture of the world that the speaker offers in the first stanza.


 * 1) What is the image of the Second Coming that troubles the speaker in the second half of the poem? Name some of the specific words that make this image especially vivid.


 * 1) What do you think the poet means by the word //center// in line 3?


 * 1) Comment on the force of the words //mere// in line 4 and //slouches// in line 22.


 * 1) What might the “blood-dimmed tide” in line 5 refer to? What could the “ceremony of innocence” in line 6 mean?


 * 1) Think of the history of the 20th century. What might “the best” be? What about “the worst”?
 * “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”**
 * 1) In the first stanza, what does the speaker say he will do?


 * 1) How do the surroundings of the lake island contrast with the speaker’s actual location?


 * 1) Why do you think the speaker cannot find peace in the city setting?


 * “Sailing to Byzantium”**
 * 1) In the first stanza, what is the speaker’s complaint about the young?


 * 1) In the second stanza, what does the speaker say are the alternatives that confront the old? Why is he sailing to Byzantium?


 * 1) Paraphrase the speaker’s prayer to the sages or wise men and saints in the third stanza.


 * 1) How does the speaker imagine himself in the fourth stanza?


 * 1) Explain how the image of singing helps to unify the poem. What do you think this song symbolizes?

6. What values does the speaker seem to uphold in this poem?