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Diction In The Second Coming

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W. B. Yeats effectively depicts the struggling society in “The Second Coming” during World War I. The poem begins with a metaphor: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre” (Yeats 1). A turning gyre, entailing a negative connotation, vividly depicts an endless spiral of currents that swallow anything they touch. It symbolizes the war killing millions of people. The use of diction in the word “widening” represents the expansion of the war, and the increased impact it created on citizens. A metaphor is used to describe the falcon and falconer to soldiers and their leaders: “The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (2). Dependable predators like falcons become aimless when they lose connection with their falconer; the same way soldiers are worthless
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