The Second Coming of the Second Coming
Poet Paul Muldoon discusses WB Yeats's post-First World War poem The Second Coming.
The Essay · BBC Radio 3
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Show Notes
Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1923, William Butler Yeats is a commanding presence in 20th-century literature and has inspired, and occasionally infuriated, successive generations of readers, writers, and performers ever since.
Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth on 13th June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with his work. The authors include novelist John Banville, actor Fiona Shaw, writer Fintan O'Toole and poet Paula Meehan.
In this edition, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon explores the connections between Yeats's post-World War One masterpiece 'The Second Coming' and Shelley's 'Ozymandias' written a century earlier in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo.
Producer: Stan Ferguson.