LETTER: Yeats’ poem still rings true a century later

I have noticed an increased use in the media recently of two phrases from WB Yeats’ poem The Second Coming to describe the state of government in SA today. The phrases used are “Things fall apart” and “The centre cannot hold”.

Yeats wrote his poem in 1920. It is worth quoting the first verse, which contains these two phrases and, I believe, provides a more nuanced description of our politics today. 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre;
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

David Milne

Benoni North

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