Cycles of Civilization in Three Yeats Poems--Until "What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born..."
On this day, in 1184 BC, is the traditional fall of Troy to the siege by the Greeks made immortal by Homer in the "Iliad.'' How significant was it in history? I won't deal with that, now, but the poet I love best--the last and greatest Romantic poet, William Butler Yeats--identified it as a great turning point in his historical cycles of civilization. It seems that god, or Zeus, hankering for lovely Leda, took the form of a swam and, waylaying her beside a stream. raped her. Yeats tells the story... and the fall of Greek civilization to Rome and Rome to Christianity and Christianity to..."What rough beast...?" on the 20th Century. Yeats only prophesied...we know...
https://www.facebook.com/WDonway/posts/1...
Enjoyed the article.
Cycles of civilization indeed, and each set of birthing pains is much harsher than the last.