We just had an assesment task today on the poetry of William Butler Yeats. The guy is a pessimist. I don't know if I would call him an emo, but he still has a rather depressing outlook on life. Possibly because people have told him he's ugly. Maybe also because he got rejected by a lday several times over the course of his life.
His poetry reflects this. He spends a lot of time contemplating old age, and a desire for immortality. He also has a bit of a go at everyone else. In one of his poems, The Second Coming, he seems to have a bit of a dig at Christians, saying that they are apathetic, that "the best of us lack all conviction", while waiting for 'someone' to save the world.
I don't think most Christians would agree with this. While we certainly wait for the day when Jesus will return, I don't think we're apathetic. We are called to go out, and share the news that we are already saved, not by anything we can do, but what Jesus has done on the cross. We are called to live lives that honour God, and while we by no means always manage to do this, we sure try.
Mind you, Yeats won a Nobel Prize for his writing. He must have been doing something right!
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