The second stanza, on the other hand, is full of Yeats’ prophecies. Referring back to his background, Yeats was not a Christian, but yet he included an allusion by mentioning parts of the Bible stories. However, looking at the context, it is clear that Yeats was using it as an irony, or more likely a paradox. Second coming is most often linked with Jesus’ coming back for the final judgment, or as we call it “the end of the world”. Yeats used this second coming as a revelation of why all those catastrophes happen in the world, as an answer to the unanswered questions. However, in this stanza Yeats also mentioned a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi, the spirit and soul of the universe in which the human race preserved its past memories. In order to understand more about the meaning, we must first refer to the diction. In this line Yeatrs used the word vast, meaning large… Then, he moved on to describing a sphinx, which was obviously some kind of a magical creature representing the darker side of the world. However, Yeats then used words such as moving its slow thighs…suggesting that this kind of a monster, or magical creature or whatever it was, moved slowly and in the meantime, give human beings more time to destroy what they have and have created and fell further down in sin. Yeat’s reference to the Bible was again obvious in the few last lines. Twenty centuries refers to the time when Jesus was born. Yeats used this diction along with the words stony sleep to suggest that during the time between the first and the second coming of the “messiah”, humans do nothing and instead sleep, meaning being the lazy, incompetent people they are. Then, those twenty centuries were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle… some sort of a creature, or perhaps a human, was going to be born, but as it would confuse the period of time in which humans have control over their lives and created an even worse nightmare, it is highly possible that the creature was not someone or something with a trace of goodness in it. However, the line itself could also mean the start of something new and something obviously bad… The last line, as the finale of the poem, was again a reference derived from the Holy Bible. Again, Yeats used the word slouches that suggests a slow movement. Yeats also mentioned Bethlehem, the holy city where Jesus the Messiah was born… Perhaps he was referring that this rough beast, whatever it was, was going to be the second messiah… That it is what the polluted world deserve rather than salvation and goodness. In a way, Yeats were comparing and leveling both the first messiah, Jesus Christ, with what he thought or suggest is going to be the second messiah, a rough and evil beast.
