LLT (exam 1 ) paper

Achebe takes the title for his novel from a line in a classic Western modernist poem “The Second Coming” (written 1919, published 1921) by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Paul Brians explains the background of Yeats’ poem: “Yeats was attracted to the spiritual and occult world and fashioned for himself an elaborate mythology to explain human existence. ‘The Second Coming,’ written after the catastrophe of World War I and with communism and fascism rising, is a compelling glimpse of an inhuman world about to be born. Yeats believed that history in part moved two thousand-year cycles. The Christian ear, which followed that of the ancient world, was about to give way to an ominous period represented by the rough, pitiless beast in the poem.” Read the poem (below) and consider why Achebe might choose to take the title of his novel from Yeats’ poem. Consider how Achebe’s literary allusion to Yeats’ poem might deepen or extend–by comparison and/or contrast–the meaning(s) of Achebe’s title and his novel. Your response should be a 300+ word (minimum) short essay.