From The Second Coming, by William Butler Yeats:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world …
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 …
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
Darkness
Yeats’s vision a hundred years ago foretells our modern mood and darkly paints the approach of something far less than Christ. We can shrink from this or gird our world with truth.
Stand up, stand up.
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This poem has been echoing in my subconscious for the past 6 months.
Andy, Christchurch
It seems the times call it forth. As it describes the destruction of society it paints an image of the eternal good and awakens the primeval urge for battle.