We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Yeats's `rough beast': Sphinx or manticore?
- Authors
Bull, Malcolm
- Abstract
The article speculates whether the "rough beast" in Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" is a transformation of a sphinx or that of a manticore. The author provides a description of a manticore as presented in the book "Historie of the Foure-footed beastes," by Edward Topsell and argues that Yeats' was inspired by the manticore within the book "La Tentation de Saint Antoine," by Gustave Flaubert.
- Subjects
SECOND Coming, The (Poem : Yeats); YEATS, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939; MYTHICAL animals in literature; SPHINXES (Mythology) in literature; HISTORIE of the Foure-Footed Beastes (Book); TOPSELL, Edward; LA Tentation de Saint Antoine (Book); FLAUBERT, Gustave, 1821-1880
- Publication
Notes & Queries, 1995, Vol 42, Issue 2, p209
- ISSN
0029-3970
- Publication type
Poetry Review
- DOI
10.1093/notesj/42.2.209