1. What do you think the title of this poem might mean? Have you heard of this expression before?
2. Discuss the connotations of the word ‘apocalypse’ and say where you might have heard this word before.
COMPREHENDING AND RESPONDING
1. Explain in your own words what you think Yeats might have meant by the line: ‘The falcon cannot hear the falconer’.
2. What kind of vision of the world does Yeats give us in lines 3–6? Support your answer with reference to the poem.
3. How does Yeats contrast good people with evil people in lines 7–8? Refer to the poem to support your answer.
4. What effect does the adverb ‘surely’ have in lines 9–10?
5. Why do you think the desert birds are indignant in line seventeen? Give reasons for your answer.
6. Write a brief response to the way in which Yeats describes the birth of Christ in lines 19–20.
7. Explain these lines in your own words: ‘And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?’
8. What, in your opinion, is the tone of this poem? 9. Having read the poem do you like or dislike the title? Explain your answer. 10. What, in your opinion, are the main themes of this poem? Explain your answer.
CREATING
1. Write a persuasive speech to be given at a national debating competition proposing or opposing the following motion: ‘The world may not be perfect, but it is the best it has ever been.’
2. You have an idea for the ultimate apocalyptic film. Write a proposal to Steven Spielberg outlining your vision for this film.
3. Write a short story in which a well-known work of art or sculpture comes to life.
4. Write a discursive essay in which you consider and discuss this quotation by Edmund Burke: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’
