--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: . . . after twenty centuries of stony…" description: "\"“ . . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?\" W.B. Yeats - from ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg" --- # . . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough… ![“. . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" W.B. Yeats - from 'The Second Coming” quote by W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg) > ““ . . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" W.B. Yeats - from 'The Second Coming”” [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Yeats envisions a chaotic, violent force emerging after a long period of stagnation, threatening to overturn the old order. **In simple terms:** A new, destructive power is rising. Key Takeaway History cycles into turmoil. Themes apocalypse history chaos rebirth mythology Mood foreboding intense mysterious Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - post-war societies - cultural upheaval - political revolutions - social unrest Key Concepts civilizational decay symbolic beasts prophetic vision Practical Applications - literary analysis - cultural criticism Questions to Reflect On - What does the 'rough beast' symbolize in modern contexts? - How does this image challenge notions of progress? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Sleep](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sleep/) ## Related quotes > [“You know that part of Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’ where it’s, like, ‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/you-know-that-part-of-yeats-s-the-second-coming-where-it-s-like-the/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [“The poet Yeats felt we were living in the last of a great Christian cycle. His poem “The Second Coming” says, “Turning and turning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/the-poet-yeats-felt-we-were-living-in-the-last-of-a-great-christian/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/and-what-rough-beast-its-hour-come-round-at-last-slouches-toward/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/now-i-know-that-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-were-vexed-to/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [“How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/how-many-loved-your-moments-of-glad-grace-and-loved-your-beauty-with/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [The end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-21-may-to-be-precise-that-s-the-date/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“It goes without saying that in order for me to buy a teapot at the Oneida, Ltd., outlet store at the Sherrill Shopping Plaza,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-vowell/it-goes-without-saying-that-in-order-for-me-to-buy-a-teapot-at-the/) [Sarah Vowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-vowell/) > [“My greatest desire is that the reader will understand that the events involving Israel and Middle East are rushing toward a conclusion. This conclusion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-mcternan/my-greatest-desire-is-that-the-reader-will-understand-that-the-events/) John McTernan > [“Amillennialists thus hold that the “thousand years” is a symbolic reference to the entire period (which we are now in) between Christ’s resurrection until…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-menn/amillennialists-thus-hold-that-the-thousand-years-is-a-symbolic/) [Jonathan Menn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-menn/) > [The Olivet Discourse is not about the Second Coming of Christ. It is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-chilton/the-olivet-discourse-is-not-about-the-second-coming-of-christ-it-is-a/) [David Chilton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-chilton/) > [Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe. We cannot imagine a Second Coming that would not be cut down to size…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/our-brains-are-no-longer-conditioned-for-reverence-and-awe-we-cannot/) [John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/) > [The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis/the-doctrine-of-the-second-coming-teaches-us-that-we-do-not-and/) [C. S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis/) > [I'd like to see the Second Coming in every one of us. That we all be Jesus. That we all embody that consciousness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-siberry/i-d-like-to-see-the-second-coming-in-every-one-of-us-that-we-all-be/) [Jane Siberry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-siberry/) > [How Cable survived Second Coming and what his responsibility is to his daughter, Hope, may have something to do with the Avengers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeph-loeb/how-cable-survived-second-coming-and-what-his-responsibility-is-to/) [Jeph Loeb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeph-loeb/) > [“Is desecration teaching? Is violence knowledge? Is haunting a kind of life? I had no model for rebirth. No second coming blueprint.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amber-dawn/is-desecration-teaching-is-violence-knowledge-is-haunting-a-kind-of/) [Amber Dawn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amber-dawn/) ## More by W. B. Yeats > [“All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old, The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/all-things-uncomely-and-broken-all-things-worn-out-and-old-the-cry-of-2/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [“Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery Can leave the mother, murdered at her door, To crawl in her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/now-days-are-dragon-ridden-the-nightmare-rides-upon-sleep-a-drunken/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [“I did not, but i saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a queen.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/i-did-not-but-i-saw-a-young-girl-and-she-had-the-walk-of-a-queen/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [“For he comes, the human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, From a world more full of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/for-he-comes-the-human-child-to-the-waters-and-the-wild-with-a-faery/) [W. B. YEATS](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [“How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/how-many-loved-your-moments-of-glad-grace-and-loved-your-beauty-with/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) > [“Man is in love and loves what vanishes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/man-is-in-love-and-loves-what-vanishes/) [W. B. Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) [Explore all 7 W. B. Yeats quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/) ## More Poetry quotes > [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/) [Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/) > [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/) [Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/) > [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/) [Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/) > [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/) [Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/) > [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/) [David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/) [Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/) Uncle Arnie Mamath [Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“ . . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?\" W.B. Yeats - from 'The Second Coming”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W. B. Yeats" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-what-rough-beast-its-hour-come/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-what-rough-beast-its-hour-come/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61b/w-b-yeats-2-52885_poetry_after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-wh_81353.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“. . . after twenty centuries of stony sleep, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward…” — W. B. Yeats", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "W. B. Yeats", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-b-yeats-2/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“ . . . after twenty...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-what-rough-beast-its-hour-come/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-b-yeats-2/after-twenty-centuries-of-stony-sleep-what-rough-beast-its-hour-come/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```