Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Rough Beast of Decadence

Judge Robert Bork's wrote in reference to W.B. Yeats' poem, The Second Coming.
Bork wrote, "He (Yeats) can hardly have forseen that passionate intensity, uncoupled from morality, would shred the fabric of Western Culture. The rough beast of decadence, a long time in gestation, having reached its maturity in the last few decades, now sends us slouching toward our new home, not Bethlehem but Gomorrah".
 
Yeats poem begins:

"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."

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