The Second Coming
ENGL362: Talking Pictures, Anthony Edwards
My adaptation presents a fresh reading of W.B. Yeats’ poem The Second
Coming. This reworking places the action approximately 15 to 20 years
after the poem’s publication and attempts to apply the subject matter to
the Second World War, in particular the rise of Nazism. The work itself was
actually written during the interwar period, immediately after the close of
the First World War. Most interpretations see the work’s allegorical intent
in relation to Irish independence, the Russian Revolution or the chaotic
state of world affairs around that time. Although the events which led
up to the Second World War may not have been the original focus of
the poem, I feel there is sufficient potential to at least attempt a graphic
reworking of the piece using such material and ideas. In this case, the
title itself should be read as alluding to a second coming of large scale
conflict, referring to two of the most chaotic periods of world history, let
alone that of the 20th century.
One of the concepts, which I have attempted to capture, is a kind of
imbalance and abstract ‘irregularity’, in order to present the precarious
world order via tumultuous events in Europe. This presentation is
(hopefully) strengthened by a graphic compararison with a desert
landscape being disturbed by a sandstorm. I have also deconstructed
the logical sequencing a little by jumping from standard formatted panel
sequencing to overwhelming large panel splash pages. This idea of small
to large, along with the similarity of panel progression from small to larger
in the first two pages, is intended to portray a kind of pulsating torsion that
may be palpable from the twisting maelstrom of Yeats’ ‘widening gyre’.
This piece also contains various shifts between the Nazi iconography of
1930s Europe, and a bleak and timeless desert landscape that would
essentially defy chronological definition; it could be now, or the same
period as the events in Yeats’ work, or even thousands of years ago,
alluding to the ‘twenty centuries of stony sleep’. It obviously relates to
Yeats’ desert imagery, but here its use is to show that the effects of
conflict echo through the ages, and how it affects someone (the Bedouin,
an allegorical ‘common man’) so far away, who, on the surface, should
not be involved. The uncertainty of exactly when the desert images take
place is used with the intention of capturing the ambiguity and overarching
sense of displacement in Yeats’ powerful work.
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