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In reply to the discussion: Pick a song that labels the US now [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)85. "The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity." ~ Yeats, The Second Coming
I don't see weaklings who "lack all intensity" as our best, but he is speaking of disillusionment, of people who should be our best but become lost in the spiritus mundi, failing instead of committing to defense of principle.
This poem has influenced the lyrics of many pieces, of course.
I don't see weaklings who "lack all intensity" as our best, but he is speaking of disillusionment, of people who should be our best but become lost in the spiritus mundi, failing instead of committing to defense of principle.
This poem has influenced the lyrics of many pieces, of course.
The Second Coming
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
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?
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
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?
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Or how about "Tin Soldier"? I think it was recorded by a group called Small Faces.
tonyt53
Jun 2018
#7
Yeah, I see that too. And understand the kind of disillusionment they're talking about.
thucythucy
Jun 2018
#70
Ah ... ELP ... that band that almost always makes me wish I were listening to Yes instead ;)
mr_lebowski
Jun 2018
#53
Bruce Springsteen...Born in America/ and Youngstown (his people were from Youngstown Ohio.)
Demsrule86
Jun 2018
#62