Observations placeholder
Yeats, Georgie - A Vision - Civilisation is hooped together
Identifier
019758
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The idea that civilisations - symbolically cities - also have a spiritual path and a destiny
A description of the experience
W B Yeats – A Vision
Civilisation is hooped together, brought
Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
By manifold illusion; but man's life is thought
And he, despite his terror, cannot cease
Ravening through century after century
Ravening, raging and uprooting that he may come
Into the desolation of reality
Egypt and Greece, goodbye, and goodbye Rome!
Hermits upon Mount Meru or Everest
Caverned in night under the drifted snow
Or where that snow and winter's dreadful blast
Beat down upon their naked bodies, know
That day brings round the night, that before dawn
His glory and his monuments are gone