Abstract

William Butler Yeats is one of the leading poets in English poetry of the 20th century. He is a great modernist poet. A great many of critics make numerous analysis and studies of Yeats's poems from different perspectives, such as politics, gender, sociology, and post-colonialism respectively. “The Second Coming” is one of the most famous poems of Yeats. The poem is mostly based on the Biblical content. The setting of the poem is quite bleak. And thus many think the new era falls with the horror and terrifying scenes and fates of the mankind. However, due to Yeats’ mythopoesis and the analysis of defamiliarization, with which he creates the unfamiliar scenes from the familiar mythologies and draws us into thinking the fate of humankind in his last few lines of the poem. The author argues that the outcome may not as pessimistic as it is described and the mankind’s fate is yet to be disclosed.

Key words: William Butler Yeats; The Second Coming; Bible; mythopoesis; defamiliarization

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1.Introduction1

1.1 William Butler Yeats.1

1.2 The Scholarship on William Butler Yeats’ works.1

1.3 Defamiliarization2

2.Chapter One  Bible elements in The Second Coming.4

2.1 Genesis and Exodus in The Second Coming5

3.Chapter Two  Mythology and Mythopoesis6

3.1 Mythology6

3.2 Reflection of the real world.6

3.3 Yeats' religion practice.7

4.Chapter Three  Defamilarazation in The Second Coming8

4.1 Defamilarazation8

4.2 Explanation of The Second Coming8

5.Conclusion.10

References11