The Second Coming

W.B Yeats

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
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest works of English literature ever written. I could write volumes about it, but I want to focus on the quote that says, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity". This line is lived out everyday in the hallways of the high school where I teach. You have two kinds of students- those that chat and walk quietly from room to room and those who yell and scream as they travel down the halls. They don't look where they're going and get mad when people get in their way.

This is the way of the world, Yeat tells us- the nice guys keep their mouths shut and let those who are violent get away with everything. What I wouldn't give to see a quiet kid, just once, stand up for what's right. A Tiananmen Squaresque moment where the nerd stood up to a pack of bullies built like tanks. He would surely be defeated, but in his defeat he would garner glory the bullies could only dream of.

When I was in high school, I was a chameleon, able to blend seamlessly into different groups. But I felt for those less fortunate souls who couldn't, and had to live in a state of constant ridicule. I dedicate this entry to them, and hope they've found a place where insults are more rare than two dollar bills.