What Rough Beast

William Butler Yeats' 'The Second Coming' is by far my favorite of his poems.

It's, while slow and studied, full of emotion and surreal imagery. Lines such as: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." and "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" often leave me setting the book down and just staring off in to the distance for minutes at a time.

I have to admit thought I don't see his, "...rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?", as the sphinx-like figure, "moving its slow thighs" he envisions.

I see, instead, the beast as a raging bull, it's horns tearing the sky, it's hoofs cracking the earth beneath, it's bellows blasting eardrums asunder!

OK, I got carried away a bit there -grin- none the less, Wilie Yeats' is well worth reading!!!


Mixed media; Ink and watercolor on 140 pound cold pressed paper, 11 by 15 inches