When first reading The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats, the thing that stood out to me the most was the pessimistic tone of this poem. Yeats managed to make me feel extremely tense and anxious about the uncertainty of the future. He describes the future as a time of anarchy and chaos, where everyone is evil and no one is good. Through reflecting on this poem, I realized how grateful I am to believe in an omniscient, good God who is my hope and my salvation. While I do not know what the future will hold, God does, and I feel extremely safe and comforted because of that. Yeats certainly did not believe in the Christian God. He made up his own religion, which he explains in his book A Vision. He believed the world was entering a new era marked by anarchy and chaos. No one would be safe and no one could predict what was coming next. Unlike the Christian faith, which looks forward to the second coming of Jesus, Yeats had no hope for the future.
I feel like my life would be so much more difficult if I lived with Yeats’ philosophy. My ultimate source of encouragement and hope comes from what I believe about God. I believe God is all-knowing and he has a plan for all of Creation, and my life in particular. I believe God is good and trustworthy. These foundational beliefs in God help me see the ultimate picture when myself or those I love are faced with difficult times. I do not know how I would be able to get through life believing that there is no ultimate hope for the world.
