Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Tuesday 24 May 2011

W. B. Yeats: Some Revelation Is At Hand

.


Storm clouds dwarf a farm near Lamar, Missouri as the sun sets, 22 May 2011. The storm earlier produced a large tornado that moved through much of Joplin, Missouri: photo by Charlie Riedel/AP





Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;









A shelf cloud containing a thunderstorm approaches a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Joplin, Missouri, 23 May 2011: photo by Charlie Riedel/AP




Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.







Emergency workers wait for a medical team after finding a body in a tornado-ravaged car in Joplin, Missouri, 22 May 2011: photo by Charlie Riedel/AP

W. B Yeats: The Second Coming, 1919 (lines 1-3, 9-10)

4 comments:

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Great lines in relation to these photos -- and what went turning and turning through Joplin two days ago. . . .


5.24

pink clouds in pale blue sky above still
black ridge, white half moon by branches
in foreground, waves sounding in channel

between present that elapsed
and present, not only

that, where necessary, other
not “pictorial world”

line of white water breaking in channel,
3 pelicans flapping across toward point

Barry Taylor said...

Images like these, the terrifying footage on yesterday's news of the tornado in action - I get glimpses of how an environment such as this might well breed the likes of the apocalyptic Mr Camping.

Anonymous said...

As the expression goes: What Stephen said. What Barry said is really interesting also; I'd never considered that.

TC said...

In this biblical landscape airborne apocalyse is deja vu all over again. Who knows what rough beast is e'en now slouching toward Oakland to be born.