{"id":173,"date":"2005-09-13T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-13T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=173"},"modified":"2005-09-13T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-13T08:05:00","slug":"quoteworthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/09\/quoteworthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Quoteworthy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Rifftides<\/em> reader Eric Bruskin reacts to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/archives\/2005\/09\/quote_5.html\"target=\"_blank\">yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quote<\/a> from Bertrand Russell:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Was this before or after Yeats put it much more memorably:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>The best lack all conviction while the worst<br \/>\nAre full of passionate intensity <\/em>&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That is not the only memorable line in William Butler Yeats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>The Second Coming <\/em>(1921). I wonder whether any poem has had greater effect on observers of the chaos of the Twentieth Century and the early years of this one.  It inspired, among other writings, the title of Joan Didion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant book of essays, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/redirect?link_code=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;tag=rifftidougram-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;path=tg\/detail\/-\/0374521727\/qid=1126568568\/sr=8-1\/ref=pd_bbs_1?v=glance%26s=books%26n=507846\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/em><\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Second Coming<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Turning and turning in the widening gyre<br \/>\nThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;<br \/>\nThings fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br \/>\nMere anarchy is loosed upon the world,<br \/>\nThe blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br \/>\nThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;<br \/>\nThe best lack all conviction, while the worst<br \/>\nAre full of passionate intensity.<br \/>\nSurely some revelation is at hand;<br \/>\nSurely the Second Coming is at hand.<br \/>\nThe Second Coming! Hardly are those words out<br \/>\nWhen a vast image out of Spritus Mundi<br \/>\nTroubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.<br \/>\nA shape with lion body and the head of a man,<br \/>\nA gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,<br \/>\nIs moving its slow thighs, while all about it<br \/>\nReel shadows of the indignant desert birds.<br \/>\nThe darkness drops again; but now I know<br \/>\nThat twenty centuries of stony sleep<br \/>\nwere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,<br \/>\nAnd what rough beast, its hour come round at last,<br \/>\nSlouches towards Bethlehem to be born<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201dW.B. Yeats<br \/>\nOn the off chance that you need help with Yeats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mysticism and symbols (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m raising my hand), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/Athens\/Delphi\/8156\/yeats.html\"target=\"_blank\">here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a start<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rifftides reader Eric Bruskin reacts to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quote from Bertrand Russell: Was this before or after Yeats put it much more memorably: The best lack all conviction while the worst Are full of passionate intensity &#8230; That is not the only memorable line in William Butler Yeats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Second Coming (1921). I wonder whether any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}