1. Turning and turning in the widening gyre
→ Things are spinning out of control in a widening spiral.
2. The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
→ The bird of prey (falcon) has gone so far from its master that it can no longer hear commands — a symbol of chaos and disconnection.
3. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
→ Order is collapsing; the foundation of society is no longer strong enough to keep everything together.
4. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
→ Complete disorder and violence are spreading across the world.
5. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
→ A wave of violence and bloodshed has been unleashed everywhere.
6. The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
→ Innocent and good things are being overwhelmed and destroyed.
7. The best lack all conviction, while the worst
→ Good people have lost their confidence and purpose,
8. Are full of passionate intensity.
→ While bad people are filled with dangerous energy and strong beliefs.
9. Surely some revelation is at hand;
→ It feels like something powerful or divine is about to be revealed.
10. Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
→ Maybe this is the moment foretold in Christian belief when Christ will return — the Second Coming.
11. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
→ As soon as I say “The Second Coming” aloud,
12. When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
→ A huge image from the “spirit of the world” (the collective soul or imagination of mankind)
13. Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
→ Appears in my mind — I see a desert landscape
14. A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
→ A beast with a lion’s body and a man’s head (similar to the Sphinx).
15. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
→ Its stare is cold and merciless, like the sun that shines on everything without caring.
16. Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
→ It moves slowly, and around it
17. Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
→ Birds of prey in the desert fly in angry, dizzying circles.
18. The darkness drops again; but now I know
→ The vision fades into darkness again — but now I understand something new.
19. That twenty centuries of stony sleep
→ For two thousand years (since Christ), a deep, unfeeling slumber has lasted,
20. Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
→ And now this sleep has been disturbed into a nightmare — symbolized by a cradle (referring to the birth of Christ or a new, dark force).
21. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
→ And now a wild and terrifying creature, whose time has finally come,
22. Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
→ Is slowly making its way to Bethlehem (the birthplace of Christ) — but instead of a savior, it’s a monster being born.
