In 1921 Yeats wrote a poem entitled “The Second Coming.”

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

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

I believe that Chinua Achebe picked this poem because it symbolizes the end of African civilization. It also reflects about hope and tough decision making which the book reflects a lot. The poem, like the book, reflect the end; where there is nothing that no one can do but become and spectator.

The first four lines of this poem are found amidst the opening pages of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. I find there to be a lot of similarities between the novel and the poem. Chinua may have chosen this poem because it fits in exactly with the deterioration and destruction of Okonkwo and his tribe.

Some topics in this essay:
Fall Apart, Hermetic Society, World War, Mundi Troubles, Apart Christian, Chinua Achebe, Ireland Throughout, Nwoye Nwoye, Slouches Bethlehem, Coming Hardly, fall apart, yeats’ poem, falcon hear, loses power,