Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Its Hour Has Come Round At Last



The Second Coming

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.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats

13 comments:

Habitat Vic said...

As it says in the opening words of The Martian:

"I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked."

Sure, I'll lick my wounds and fight on (what choice is there), and I guess there is some solace in having tried - phone banking, donations, other GOTV.

God damn.

D. said...

Appropriate.

I might need extra coffee.

And a lot of music.

Bob M said...

Being an ex-Catholic I find myself in the grimly thinking ‘for our sins – Donald Trump’ – because we pardon Nixon, because didn’t impeach for Iran Contra, because we ‘looked forward not back’ with regard to the war in Iraq and our use of torture – all done in the name of not disrupting the system to much because it would be upsetting, that the mutant spawn of the right thought they could keep pressing that there were no limits and that in that hothouse, eventually gave us Trump and more importantly Trump’s voters.

Bob M said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
proverbialleadballoon said...

Remember when you posted the Batman/Penguin debate, and I was like the Penguin wins that election? That. (not an indictment, merely stating my outlook this morning) or when Sideshow Bob wins the mayoral election. What I'm saying is, this is excellently crafted satire, Vonnegut in all the wrong ways. Sorta dumbfounded and chuckling about it. Of course, I'm not a woman, Muslim, Mexican, gay, or any sort of minority. I am shitting my pants about social security and medicare, but at least the baby boomers got theirs, right?

June Butler said...

My thought exactly, driftglass. I'm sharing on my Facebook page, and then I believe I'll stay off Facebook for a while. I feel as if my country died yesterday.

Unknown said...

Some of us Baby Boomers are still in our 50's...so no, not quite. Many of us are women too, so lose-lose I guess. I'm with you June Butler...no more Facebook.

June Butler said...

Marilee, I am old, and I will probably live under GOP governance for the rest of my life. I hope things get better in time for those who are younger, but I doubt it will be soon.

DonP said...

I just didn't expect Satan's beast to look like a damn cartoon frog...

bluicebank said...

“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”

-- Aragorn

jim said...

Trump already has one endorsement locked up.

When you throw tantrums, things break.
More tantrums will not repair anything that a previous tantrum broke.
If you evolve beyond throwing tantrums, fewer things break.

RUKidding said...

Trump has also been highly praised by Phillippine PM Duterte, who's known for gunning down "drug abusers" in the street. Duterte got so angry with Obama, who chided Duterte on his abusive behavior, that he went to China to form deals with them and kick us out of the Phillippines.

Now that Trump has won, Duterte says he's all good Trump and won't kick us out of his country.

Great!! Trump: beloved of aggressive dictators everywhere. Too bad Idi Amin's dead. I'm sure he'd have positive things to say about Trump as well.

Pagan in repose said...

Out with the republic and manifest destiny Ho with the monopoly game, minus any rules of course.