Of Sphinx and Sparrows: The Apocalyptic Vision in Yeats’s “The Second Coming” and Miłosz’s “A Song on the End of the World
Of Sphinx and Sparrows: The Apocalyptic Vision in Yeats’s “The Second Coming” and Miłosz’s “A Song on the End of the World

Summary/Abstract: This paper critiques the contrasting apocalyptic visions in Yeats’s “The Second Coming”and Miłosz’s “A Song on the End of the World”. Taking Yeats’s poem as the epitomeof modern apocalyptic vision, we can dissect the differences between the mainstreamview of the apocalypse in this era and the marginal one in Miłosz’s poem, which arerepresented in the imagery each poet creates. Consequently, the juxtaposition of thetwo poems leads to a more profound understanding of the competing formulations ofapocalypse in the early twentieth century, which is more heterogeneous in nature thanthe literature of the period may initially suggest.

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