The Second Coming
"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats describes two very different points of
view of two very different types of people. The poem describes the white man's thoughts about
how uncivilized and unholy the native peoples of Africa were, and yet it also describes how
uncivilized and dictatorial the white men were. This poem can be considered prophetic of some
world events in the 20th Century because of the fact that white men actually did go to Africa to
convert natives, and because they did go because of the birth of Christianity.
"...A shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun ..."
(14-15). This passage best describes the native African's thoughts about the horrific white man
that came to their land to destroy their religion and spoil society. For years, white missionaries
have been traveling to Africa and other developing nations to spread the word of Christianity.
Even though the Bible does say to spread the word of the Lord, white men have no business
whatsoever traveling to Africa and completely abolishing and belittling the beliefs of others,
which are in no way hurting them. In the poem, the natives thought of the white man as an evil
Bethlehem. Asleep in a manger lies the little baby Jesus. This scene can be compared to
the first steps of a child. These were the " first steps" of Christianity. Soon, bewitched by the
preaches of the Bible, people all over the country began to believe in Christianity. The Bible
tells people to spread the word of the Lord to all those that do not believe in the faith. So the
white man did exactly this. They went over to the developing nations and they began to set up
churches in the name of Christianity. Little did they know, that the people native to these
countries were content in believing what their elders taught them. In the p
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