Formal Essay II
Thesis Proposal
- Can William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” (1919) be considered a foreshadowing or prelude to what Pablo Neruda writes about in his poem “United Fruit Co.”(1950)?
William Butler Yeats writes “The Second Coming” in response to WWI. Yeats believes that the world is on the brink of revelation; his vision of revelation is filled with darkness. Yeats’ second coming is a period of anarchy, fear and destruction. Yeats believed that history works in cycles and that the cycle that is about to begin is “an age dominated by indifference and authoritarianism” (1350). The darkness and authoritarianism that Yeats discusses connects directly with Pablo Neruda’s poem “United Fruit Co.” Neruda discusses the injustices committed by huge corporations and dictators toward the people of Central America during the post Colonial era. There are so many connections between both poems that Neruda seems to be playing out the nightmare that Yeats envisioned in his poem. The connections between these poems are both contextual and literary. Literary devices and topics these poems use; closely reflect each other. Both poems make references to Christianity. Both poems use personification; flies for dictators and a half man-half beast sphinx. Both poems give representation to those who will suffer. “The Second Coming” was an abstract dream and “United Fruit Co.” is a realization of that dream. Both poems have historical and political backdrops, modernism and post-colonialism, that needs to be considered in analyzing what the poems are trying to express. Yeats’ poem comes almost 30 years before Neruda’s poem and can be seen as a foreshadowing of what was to come. The post-colonial era could be a realization of Yeats vision of the end of the world. The literary similarities between both poems make the connections that much more compelling.
