This Blog task was assigned by Megha Ma'am (Department Of English, MKBU.) In this blog task, I have given some answers to the assigned questions.
Q.1. In what ways the flashback technique used in "For Whom the Bell Tolls?
Introduction: Memory as the Pulse of War
Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) stands as one of the most emotionally complex and psychologically layered war novels of the twentieth century. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it captures just three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter fighting with the Republican guerrillas. Yet, through the use of flashbacks, Hemingway stretches time beyond the battlefield to reveal the personal histories, traumas, and moral struggles that shape his characters.
The flashback technique in the novel serves as more than a mere storytelling tool. It functions as a psychological, thematic, and philosophical bridge between past and present—between memory and experience. By blending the external reality of war with the internal reality of thought and remembrance, Hemingway transforms For Whom the Bell Tolls into a study of human consciousness under pressure.
1. Flashbacks as Psychological Exploration
One of the most striking uses of flashback in the novel is its role in exploringRobert Jordan’s psychology.
At moments of solitude and tension, Jordan’s mind drifts back to his childhood, his education, and, most poignantly, the memory of his father’s suicide. This single memory shapes his entire sense of duty and masculinity. The shame of his father’s cowardice drives Robert to act courageously in battle, even when he is uncertain about the war’s purpose.
These flashbacks are deeply introspective, offering a psychological map of Jordan’s inner life. They humanize him, showing that his bravery is not the absence of fear but a struggle against it. Hemingway uses the past to illuminate the present, portraying courage not as instinct but as an act of will forged through painful memory.
2. Flashbacks as a Tool of Character Development
The flashback technique extends beyond the protagonist, enriching secondary characters and making them multidimensional.
Pilar’s Flashback: Her memory of the brutal execution of fascists in her village is one of the most powerful episodes in the novel. It reveals her moral conflict and emotional strength. Though she acted out of loyalty to the Republic, she is haunted by guilt. This flashback not only deepens her character but also mirrors the moral chaos of the war itself.
Maria’s Flashback: Her recollections of being captured and assaulted by fascist soldiers are fragmented and painful, surfacing during her relationship with Robert Jordan. These memories explain her fragility and her desperate need for emotional safety. Hemingway’s sensitive portrayal of Maria’s trauma through flashback adds emotional realism to her character and highlights the psychological scars of war, especially on women.
Through these vivid recollections, Hemingway achieves collective characterization. The characters’ pasts echo one another, creating a shared tapestry of suffering and endurance.
Importantly,Robert Jordan’s own flashbacks also serve to deepen his emotional development alongside these women. His recurring memories of his father’s death, his education in Spain, and his earlier missions for the Republic show how he has evolved from an idealistic intellectual into a man shaped by action and loss. These reflections reveal that Jordan’s sense of identity is not static; it grows through memory, experience, and moral questioning. In this way, Hemingway uses flashback not just to explain who Robert Jordan is but to show how he becomes the man we see in the novel’s final moments.
3. Flashbacks as Thematic Bridges Between Past and Present
Hemingway uses flashbacks to connect the personal with the political, and the past with the present.
Robert Jordan’s memories of previous missions and fallen comrades illustrate the disillusionment of war the erosion of idealism under the weight of death and betrayal. These moments link his present mission to a larger cycle of violence and futility.
Similarly, Pilar’s and Maria’s flashbacks link personal trauma to historical tragedy. Through their memories, Hemingway shows that war is not just an external conflict but an emotional and moral inheritance. The flashbacks act as thematic bridges, tying together love, death, and loyalty across time.
4.Flashbacks as a Structural Device: Modernist Narrative Technique
Hemingway’s use of flashbacks reflects his modernist narrative style and his “iceberg theory” of writing. His flashbacks are never lengthy digressions; they appear naturally, triggered by sights, sounds, or emotions. A smell of pine, the sound of gunfire, or a moment of silence can send a character spiraling into memory.
This technique mimics the real flow of consciousness fragmented, nonlinear, and emotional. Hemingway avoids clear temporal transitions like “he remembered that…” Instead, he blends time fluidly, allowing memory to surface as it would in real life.
This structural choice aligns Hemingway with other modernist writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, yet his style remains uniquely sparse and disciplined. His flashbacks are economical but charged with emotional depth, proving that brevity can coexist with complexity.
5. Flashbacks and the Poetics of Death
Death pervades the novel, not merely as an event but as an existential condition. Hemingway uses flashbacks to transform death into a philosophical meditation.
As Robert Jordan lies wounded near the end of the novel, waiting for the enemy, his mind floods with memories of Maria, his comrades, and his sense of purpose. In these final moments, flashback becomes a spiritual refuge a way to relive meaning before the final silence.
Through memory, Hemingway turns death from destruction into continuity. Jordan’s flashbacks make his death heroic, not because he defeats the enemy, but because he faces his end with awareness and peace. Memory thus becomes a form of immortality a way of preserving the human spirit beyond physical death.
6. Flashbacks as Reflections of Time and Human Experience
Time in For Whom the Bell Tolls is fluid rather than linear. Hemingway’s flashbacks illustrate that human experience is shaped by the coexistence of past and present.
The characters cannot escape their memories; they carry them as living parts of themselves. War collapses the boundaries between “then” and “now,” making every decision an echo of past pain or loss.
Through this manipulation of time, Hemingway suggests that history repeats itself not just socially but psychologically. The past is never gone; it remains embedded within the consciousness of those who live through violence. The flashbacks embody this cyclical sense of time, reinforcing the novel’s philosophical idea that all human lives are interconnected across generations, suffering, and memory.
7. Flashbacks and the Collective Memory of War
Beyond individual memory, Hemingway’s flashbacks construct a collective memory of the Spanish Civil War. Through Pilar’s vivid recollections, Jordan’s reflections on comrades, and Maria’s trauma, Hemingway presents the war as a shared human tragedy.
The flashback technique allows readers to see that the novel’s moral message extends beyond its characters it speaks for all who endure war. The title itself, drawn from John Donne’s meditation “No man is an island,” is realized through memory: every recollection tolls like a bell for the living and the dead alike.
Through these layers of remembered pain, Hemingway transforms For Whom the Bell Tolls into a universal elegy for humanity.
Conclusion: Flashback as the Soul of Hemingway’s Art
In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway’s use of flashback is not ornamental it is the heart of the novel’s emotional and moral architecture.
Through memory, he reveals character, connects private trauma to collective history, and explores time, death, and the endurance of the human spirit. The flashbacks weave together past and present, love and loss, action and reflection, giving the novel its psychological realism and spiritual depth.
For Hemingway, memory is not a retreat from war but its most honest record. It is through flashback that the reader truly understands what war does to the soul how it shapes courage, love, and the meaning of sacrifice. In the end, the bells toll for everyone, because memory unites all human experience in one shared echo of suffering and hope.
Q-2 Discuss the statement that Maria has two main functions in For Whom the Bell Tolls: ideological and biological.
Introduction: The Feminine Symbolism in Hemingway’s War Narrative
Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) is widely regarded as one of the finest depictions of war, love, and human endurance in twentieth-century fiction. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the novel transcends its political backdrop to explore universal questions of duty, love, mortality, and the meaning of human connection amidst violence. Within this masculine landscape of warfare, Hemingway introduces Maria, a seemingly simple yet deeply symbolic female figure whose presence infuses the narrative with emotional depth and metaphysical resonance.
Critics have long debated Maria’s representational purpose whether she is a fully realized individual or an idealized construct. Yet, as many scholars observe, Hemingway rarely employs women as mere companions; they are often embodiments of his moral vision. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Maria serves two interconnected functions: she is both ideological, representing the purity, freedom, and moral purpose of the Republican cause, and biological, representing nature, sensuality, and the life-giving principle that endures beyond destruction. Through Maria, Hemingway fuses ideology and biology into a single human symbol, reaffirming his belief in the inseparability of spirit and flesh, love and death, idealism and instinct.
I. The Ideological Function: Maria as the Living Symbol of the Republic
At the ideological level, Maria functions as the embodiment of the ideals for which Robert Jordan fights freedom, dignity, and the restoration of human compassion in a dehumanized world. Hemingway uses her not merely as a romantic figure but as a moral and political allegory. Her personal history mirrors the collective history of Spain itself: violated by fascism, yet still capable of regeneration and hope. The fascists’ assault on her body becomes a symbolic assault on Spain’s soul.
When Robert Jordan rescues and loves Maria, he is not only saving a woman but symbolically redeeming the violated spirit of the Republic. Maria’s purity, reclaimed through love, becomes a microcosm of the broader struggle for moral and national restoration. She gives human form to Jordan’s political idealism, transforming abstract notions of liberty and justice into tangible emotional experience.
Carlos Baker, in Hemingway: The Writer as Artist, remarks that Maria “brings the war down from its ideological heights to the level of immediate human tenderness.” Through her, Hemingway demonstrates that the value of a cause is measured not by slogans or victories but by the preservation of love and human decency. Thus, Maria’s ideological function is not propagandist; it is existential. She humanizes politics and gives Robert’s mission a moral center.
II. The Biological Function: Maria as the Life-Instinct and Natural Order
If Maria’s ideological role spiritualizes the war, her biological role naturalizes life amid its destruction. In Hemingway’s aesthetic of contrast, Maria’s physical presence represents fertility, sensuality, and the persistence of life against the backdrop of death. The scenes of intimacy between Maria and Robert Jordan are suffused with natural imagery mountains, rivers, sunlight, and earth all suggesting that their love belongs to the primal rhythm of existence.
This emphasis on the biological or instinctual dimension is central to Hemingway’s vision of regeneration. After her trauma and violation, Maria’s ability to love again represents the resilience of nature itself. Her body becomes a metaphor for renewal life reasserting itself over the mechanical destruction of war. Hemingway’s portrayal of her sexual awakening is therefore not merely erotic but ontological; it affirms the continuity of being, the human capacity to recreate meaning through love.
In this sense, Maria’s biological function aligns with Hemingway’s broader philosophy of the life force the elemental instinct that resists despair. When Robert Jordan reflects on Maria’s beauty and tenderness, his thoughts move from physical desire to a contemplation of life’s essence. Even as death surrounds him, Maria’s presence grounds him in vitality, anchoring the novel’s moral balance between eros and thanatos, love and annihilation.
III. The Dialectical Unity of Ideology and Biology
To separate Maria’s ideological and biological functions would be to miss Hemingway’s deeper structural intention. The novel achieves its emotional equilibrium precisely through the fusion of these two aspects. Maria is not a political symbol on one hand and a sexual being on the other; she is the embodied synthesis of both.
Robert Jordan’s love for Maria is not escapist; rather, it humanizes his ideology. His political commitment finds justification in her existence, for she becomes the living proof that what he fights to defend the dignity of life is real and worth dying for. Conversely, Maria’s physical love gains spiritual significance through its association with political and moral purpose. Their union represents the reconciliation of idealism and instinct, of abstract values and tangible emotion.
This dialectical balance between ideology and biology reflects Hemingway’s modernist understanding of wholeness: meaning arises not from purity or isolation but from integration. As Philip Young notes in Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration, Maria and Jordan “become in their love what the war denies them whole, unbroken human beings.” Through her, Hemingway reclaims the sanctity of human connection as the only enduring victory in a world doomed to fragmentation.
IV. Critical Context: Maria, Pilar, and the Feminine Principle
Hemingway’s female characters often embody elemental qualities life, endurance, and intuition that balance the rationality and fatalism of his male heroes. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Maria’s function gains clarity when juxtaposed with Pilar, the older guerrilla woman. Pilar represents the maternal and moral strength of the earth, while Maria embodies its youthful renewal. Together, they constitute the novel’s feminine principle, a counterforce to the masculine world of violence and ideology.
Critics such as James Nagel have argued that Hemingway constructs a duality between masculine action and feminine continuity. If war represents destruction, the women in the novel represent preservation emotional, moral, and biological. Maria, in particular, carries the symbolic weight of rebirth. Her ability to love again, despite trauma, reflects the regenerative rhythm of nature itself. Thus, the feminine, through Maria, becomes Hemingway’s metaphor for the persistence of life beyond history.
V. Death, Memory, and the Transcendence of the Biological
In the novel’s closing moments, Robert Jordan’s recollection of Maria’s touch and voice transforms her from a physical presence into an ideological and spiritual ideal. As he faces death, it is not abstract beliefs that comfort him but the living memory of their love. This fusion of physical and moral experience elevates Maria’s role to that of transcendent symbol she represents life’s continuity within death’s inevitability.
Hemingway’s title, taken from John Donne’s meditation on mortality, underscores this point: “No man is an island.” Maria’s memory connects Robert Jordan to the collective human experience, suggesting that love and memory survive even when the individual perishes. Her biological vitality becomes a form of immortality; her ideological purity, a measure of moral endurance.
Conclusion: Maria as Hemingway’s Vision of Human Wholeness
In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Maria’s dual functionsnideological and biological converge to form the spiritual nucleus of Hemingway’s war vision. Ideologically, she personifies the ideals of liberty and human dignity; biologically, she symbolizes vitality, renewal, and the natural persistence of life. Together, these functions resolve the central tension of the novel the conflict between the destructiveness of war and the endurance of the human spirit.
Hemingway uses Maria not as a passive love interest but as a sacred counterforce to death and disintegration. She unites the moral and the sensual, embodying a harmony that the war seeks to destroy but cannot erase. In her, ideology gains tenderness, and biology gains sanctity. Through Maria, Hemingway ultimately affirms that the deepest meaning of heroism lies not in killing or dying for an ideal, but in loving and living for one.
This blog is written as part of a Lab activity conducted on 31st December, under the guidance of Professor Dr. Dilip Barad Sir (Department of English, MKBU), and as part of the Cyber Security Hackathon – December 2025, organized by the Cyber Club, CAWACH, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). The objective of this blog is to spread awareness about Password Hygiene and Authentication, a critical aspect of cybersecurity in today’s digital world.
Topic: Password Hygiene and Authentication
The infographic below highlights the core ideas of Password Hygiene and Authentication and explains why old password habits are risky in 2025.
The New Rules of Password Security for 2025: Why Your Old Habits Are Putting You at Risk
Introduction: The Modern Password Paradox
Sticky notes on monitors. Admin passwords scribbled on paper. Reused logins across work and personal accounts. If this sounds familiar, you've witnessed the modern password paradox: as security policies become stricter, user password hygiene often gets worse, leading to dangerous shortcuts. These are not minor inconveniences; they are unmonitored backdoors that lead to data breaches, ransomware, and reputational damage.
This frustration is exactly what attackers rely on. They don't need to brute-force complex systems when they can exploit a single reused password from a third-party data breach to gain access to everything. The problem is that many of the security rules we've followed for years are now fundamentally broken and, in some cases, are making us less safe.
This article debunks the outdated myths that still dominate password security. We will reveal the modern truths, based on guidance from leading cybersecurity authorities, that will actually keep you and your organization secure in 2025 and beyond.
1. Forget Complexity. Length is Your New Superpower.
For years, the gold standard for a "strong" password was a complicated mix of uppercase letters, symbols, and numbers. While well-intentioned, this advice is no longer the most important factor. Modern security guidelines from authorities like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) now prioritize length above all else.
Leading agencies have established clear benchmarks that reflect this shift. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends at least 16 characters, NIST suggests 15, and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires a minimum of 12. The reason is simple mathematics: each additional character exponentially increases the number of possible combinations a computer would have to guess, making brute-force attacks impractical.
This is where the concept of a "passphrase" becomes critical. A memorable sequence of four or five unrelated words is significantly easier for a human to remember but exponentially harder for a computer to crack than a short, complex string.
A simple 12-character passphrase can take over 200 years for a computer to crack, while an 8-character password with special characters can be broken in under an hour.
2. Stop Changing Your Password Every 90 Days. Seriously.
Forcing users to change their passwords on a fixed schedule is an outdated practice that cybersecurity experts and NIST now strongly advise against. This long-held policy was based on the assumption that if a password was stolen, it would eventually become useless. In reality, it created a phenomenon known as "password fatigue."
When forced to create a new password every 90 days, most people don't create something entirely new. Instead, they make small, predictable, and incremental changes to their existing password—for example, changing "Password2025!" to "Password2025!!". This behavior actually makes their accounts easier for attackers to guess, as they can anticipate these simple patterns.
The modern best practice is clear and simple: a password should only be changed when there is evidence or a specific suspicion that it has been compromised. Otherwise, a long, unique passphrase can and should remain in use indefinitely.
3. That Verification Code Sent to Your Phone Isn't as Secure as You Think.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an absolutely essential layer of security that you should enable everywhere possible. However, it's crucial to understand that not all MFA methods are created equal. The most common forms of MFA one-time passwords (OTPs) sent via SMS text message or email are now considered weak.
Federal agencies in the U.S. and international financial regulators are actively phasing out these methods because they are vulnerable to modern attacks. Cybercriminals can use "SIM swapping" to take control of your phone number and intercept your text messages. Even more common are real-time phishing attacks (where a fake login page immediately uses your password and OTP on the real site the moment you enter them), which the attacker then immediately uses to access your real account.
Even push notifications sent to an authenticator app can be vulnerable to "MFA Fatigue" attacks. In this scenario, an attacker who already has your password will repeatedly trigger login requests, bombarding your phone with notifications in the hope that you will accidentally approve one just to make them stop. This is why leading systems are now adopting Number Matching, where the user must enter a number displayed on their login screen into the app, ensuring they are actively and intentionally approving the request.
4. The Real Silent Killer? Reusing the Same Password Everywhere.
If there is one habit to break immediately, it is reusing passwords. According to a 2024 Forbes Advisor survey, 30% of all account compromises occurred because users recycled the same password across multiple websites. This is the single most common vulnerability that attackers exploit.
The danger lies in a technique called "credential stuffing." When a company you have an account with suffers a data breach, your username and password combination is often leaked and sold on the dark web. Attackers then take these lists of leaked credentials and use automated software to "stuff" them into the login forms of countless other services from your bank and email to your social media and work accounts.
This is how a breach at one company instantly leads to your accounts being compromised at another. The only practical solution to this problem is to use a password manager. Recommended by NIST, a password manager allows you to generate and securely store a unique, long, and strong password for every single account you own, ensuring that a breach at one site can't compromise your entire digital life.
5. The Future is Here, and It's Called a "Passkey".
The long-term solution to the password problem is to get rid of passwords entirely. That future is not a distant concept; the technology, called "passkeys," is already built into modern phones and computers from Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
A passkey replaces your password with a pair of cryptographic keys, making the login process both simpler and far more secure. Here's how it works in non-technical terms:
Your device creates a unique key pair for each website: a private key that is securely stored on your device and never leaves, and a public key that is stored by the website.
To log in, you simply use the same biometric (fingerprint or face scan) or PIN that you use to unlock your device. This action authorizes your device and only your device to prove its identity to the website using the private key.
No secret is ever sent over the internet. The entire process is a mathematical proof of ownership, not a transfer of credentials.
The single most important benefit of this technology is its built-in defense against the most common type of cyberattack.
Passkeys are phishing-resistant by design. Because the key is cryptographically tied to the legitimate website, it simply will not work on a fake phishing site, protecting you automatically.
Conclusion: Time for a Security Upgrade
The rules of password security have fundamentally changed. The old focus on forced memorization of complex, rotating strings has been replaced by a modern framework that prioritizes length, uniqueness, and phishing resistance. By adopting long passphrases, using a password manager for every account, choosing stronger MFA methods, and embracing passkeys wherever possible, you can reclaim control over your digital identity and build a more resilient security posture.
The ultimate goal is a passwordless future, and that future is rapidly becoming a reality. The transition away from the vulnerabilities of the past has already begun, powered by technology that is more secure and easier to use.
Now that the old security rules are broken, what is the single most important change you will make to protect your digital life today?
The video below briefly explains the key concepts of Password Hygiene and Authentication and the new rules of password security for 2025
Here is Presentation of Password Hygiene and Authentication
This Blog is written as part of the Thinking Activity assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad (Department Of English, MKBU) in the study of W. B. Yeats’s modern poetry. The purpose of this task is to develop a critical understanding of Yeats’s poetic response to war, chaos, and the decline of civilization as reflected in “The Second Coming” and “On Being Asked for a War Poem.”
1. Watch two videos on the poems (online class) from the blog link. Embed the videos and write brief analysis of both the poems.
1.The Second Coming
The following analysis is based on insights from the above video lecture. It helps explore Yeats’s poetic response to war, chaos, and the crisis of faith.
3 Surprising Ways to Read a 100-Year-Old Poem That Predicted Our Chaotic World
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;"
In a world defined by uncertainty and upheaval, these century-old lines from W.B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming" have become a constant, almost reflexive, refrain. Written in 1919, the poem is a cult classic, frequently cited to capture our modern sense of chaos, yet it is often understood through a single, limited lens.
Most people read "The Second Coming" as a direct response to the devastation of World War I. While that interpretation is correct, it is incomplete. This article will explore three distinct layers of meaning within the poem, culminating in a recently uncovered interpretation that was hidden in plain sight one that makes Yeats’s masterpiece chillingly relevant to our own pandemic era.
1. The Obvious Reading: A World Shattered by War and Revolution
On its surface, "The Second Coming" is a telegram from a world on fire, its meaning seemingly anchored in the historical turmoil of 1919. The poem is a direct reflection of the anxiety that permeated Europe as World War I was ending. Yeats was grappling not only with the aftermath of a global conflict but also with the seismic shock of the Russian Revolution and the brewing violence of the Irish revolutionary movement, which was unfolding on his very "doorstep."
The poem's opening images brilliantly capture this sense of a civilization staring into the abyss. Yeats describes a "widening gyre," an apocalyptic image of destructive force. This is no mere spiral; it is an "eruption of the air circulation," a cyclone so powerful it "lifts houses cars vehicles," tearing the world from its foundations. The falcon, a trained hunter, can no longer hear the call of its master, symbolizing a world that has broken free from its traditional structures and authorities.
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
In this reading, the poem is a powerful lament for the disintegration of 20th-century European civilization, a world where long-held convictions have evaporated, leaving only chaos in their wake.
2. The Spiritual Reading: A Crisis of Faith and a Terrifying New God
But political chaos alone doesn't explain the poem's terrifying, mystical power. To understand that, we must look beyond the battlefield and into the crisis of the soul. The poem's title, "The Second Coming," is a deliberate and provocative invocation of the Biblical promise of Jesus Christ's return. But instead of fulfilling this prophecy of salvation, Yeats radically subverts it, transforming a promise of hope into a vision of horror.
A terrifying new figure emerges not from heaven, but from the Spiritus Mundi what Yeats conceived as a "universal memory" or "memory bank," a concept akin to Carl Jung's "collective unconscious" that provides inspiration to poets. Instead of a savior, a monstrous "shape with lion body and the head of a man" emerges, its "gaze blank and pitiless as the sun" as it "slouches towards Bethlehem to be born."
This shocking image reflects a profound spiritual vacuum. The Christian religion, built on the message of compassion "if somebody is beating you offer another cheek" had utterly failed to prevent the mechanized slaughter of millions in the Great War. The bitter irony was inescapable. The old god was gone. In his place, Yeats envisioned a new deity for a new, brutal age: not a figure of hope, but a pitiless monster.
3. The Shocking Reading: The Pandemic Hidden in Plain Sight
But the most chilling reading of "The Second Coming" is the one that was silenced for a century, hidden not in metaphor, but in the tragic reality of biology. For decades, a crucial influence on the poem was almost completely erased from history: the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. This interpretation, powerfully articulated in Elizabeth Outka's book Viral Modernism, reveals a layer of meaning that is both deeply personal and shockingly immediate.
The biographical link is critical. While Yeats was writing the poem, his pregnant wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, was stricken with the Spanish Flu and was "very close to death." The situation was terrifyingly grim; the death rate for pregnant women during the pandemic was as high as 70% in some areas.
With this knowledge, the poem's most visceral images snap into focus, transforming from abstract symbols into literal descriptions of the flu's horrific effects. The line "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed" ceases to be a metaphor for war. A frequent and terrible symptom of this influenza was severe, uncontrollable bleeding from the nose, mouth, and ears veritable "floods of blood." The declaration that "The ceremony of innocence is drowned" takes on a harrowing, literal meaning, as patients drowned in their own beds when their lungs filled with fluid. This was the exact danger facing Yeats's wife and his unborn child as he sat down to write.
In this light, the "rough beast" is no longer just a symbol of anarchy. It becomes a "terrific description of pandemic"—an amorphous threat that coalesces from the invisible virus, a "hallucination" born of fear and delirium. The creature's strange form is the shape terror takes when the enemy is everywhere and nowhere at once.
When you read it through the lens of the pandemic, this other poem begins to emerge.
Conclusion: A Poem for Our Time
"The Second Coming" is not one poem, but three. It is a document of political chaos, a howl of spiritual crisis, and, most surprisingly, a hidden testament to the trauma of a global pandemic.
This final reading makes Yeats's work feel less like a historical artifact and more like a dispatch written for our own time. It reveals how an invisible, airborne threat can shape our art and consciousness. It also stands as a stark warning about historical amnesia. As one professor of modernist literature admitted, for years of teaching, "there was absolutely no reference to spanish flu... it seems like pandemic was almost erased from the history."
If a global pandemic could be forgotten as a primary influence on one of the 20th century's most famous poems, what crucial stories from our own turbulent era are we failing to see, and what will it take for future generations to read them?
2. On being asked for a War Poem
The following analysis is based on insights from the above video lecture.
Yeats, Pandemics, and Propaganda: 3 Surprising Truths Behind His Most Famous Poems
W.B. Yeats is often remembered as a titan of modern literature a poet of dense symbolism, Irish myth, and intricate, mystical systems. To many, he can seem complex, even difficult. But behind his most famous works lie surprising, counter-intuitive, and deeply relevant stories about the raw realities of his time: politics, pandemics, and the true role of the artist in a world of crisis.
This article explores three impactful takeaways, drawn from deep analysis of his work, that reveal a poet far more engaged with the turbulent world around him than is commonly understood.
His Refusal to Write a War Poem Was His War Poem
In 1915, at the height of World War I, the prominent writers Henry James and Edith Wharton asked Yeats to contribute a poem to The Book of the Homeless, an anthology Wharton was compiling to support war refugees. His response was a masterstroke of artistic defiance. Instead of a patriotic ode, he wrote a short poem explaining precisely why a poet's "mouth be silent" in such times.
The poem's power is revealed in its own evolution. Its initial title was a personal note: "To a friend who has asked me to sign his manifesto to the neutral nations." It was later published as "A reason for keeping silent," shifting the focus to artistic principle. Only in its final form did it become the iconic "On Being Asked for a War Poem." This journey shows a mind deliberately crafting his silence. This was no simple evasion; it was a form of "refusal as ascent," where the very act of saying "no" through a poem became a more potent statement than saying "yes." He argued that the artist's power is fundamentally different from, and often powerless against, the machinery of the state. As he wrote:
we have no gift to set a state's men right
In an era of intense patriotic fervor, Yeats's poem was not an act of cowardice but a profound political statement. It asserted that a poet's duty is not to serve as a propagandist but to operate on a different plane of truth.
A Pandemic, Not Just War, Fueled His Vision of Chaos
Yeats's most famous poem, "The Second Coming," is legendary for its chilling prophecy of societal collapse. Its lines about a world where "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" are quoted endlessly to describe political and social breakdown. While the poem has traditionally been read through political or religious lenses, modern scholarship has uncovered a third, visceral context that re-frames the entire work.
Just before writing the poem in 1919, Yeats’s pregnant wife, Georgie, was stricken by the Spanish Flu pandemic and came perilously close to death. It was a terrifying ordeal; the death rate for pregnant women reached as high as 70% in some areas. When read through this biographical lens, the poem's apocalyptic imagery takes on a startlingly new meaning.
The line "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed" powerfully evokes a common and horrific symptom of the flu: severe bleeding from the nose, mouth, and ears. The phrase "the ceremony of innocence is drowned" resonates with the way victims' lungs filled with fluid, literally drowning them. The monstrous "rough beast" slouching towards Bethlehem becomes not just a symbol of political anarchy, but a "terrific description of pandemic"—an invisible, terrifying, and lurching threat born from delirium and personal horror. The poem’s famous couplet feels just as relevant to public health crises as to political ones:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
This pandemic reading makes a century-old poem feel startlingly contemporary, transforming it from a grand political prophecy into a deeply personal account of fear, sickness, and survival.
The Poet's Real Fight Was Against the Politician's Narrative
Yeats's refusal to write a pro-war poem was not an apolitical act; it was rooted in his identity as a fierce Irish nationalist engaged in the "longest struggle for Irish independence." He was fundamentally opposed to the British cause in World War I, a sentiment sharpened by events like the Easter Rising of 1916. He could not write a patriotic poem for a nation he considered an oppressor. The conflicted loyalties of Irishmen fighting for their colonizer is a theme he explored in other works, like his poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death."
His private letters reveal his unfiltered thoughts. Writing to his friend Lady Gregory, he was scathing:
I suppose like most wars it is at root a bag man's war... a sacrifice of the best for the worst.
In another letter, to John Quinn, he dismissed the entire conflict as "merely the most expensive outbreak of insolence and stupidity the world has ever seen."
Yeats believed the poet's ultimate role was not to be a propagandist or to correct politicians. He felt the artist’s true domain was the timeless, internal aspects of human life. His work was to tend to the experience of "a young girl in the indolence of her youth or an old man upon a winter's night." His poetic "silence" on the war was therefore a deliberate choice to reject the "rightful statements" of statesmen and, in doing so, protect a different, more human, and more enduring form of truth.
A Final Thought
Far from being an aloof mystic escaping into art, W.B. Yeats was a deeply engaged artist whose work grappled with the most pressing crises of his time war, political propaganda, and even global pandemic. He used his art not to offer simple answers, but to question the very nature of art's role in a world tearing itself apart.
In our own turbulent times, what is the artist's ultimate responsibility: to amplify the rallying cries of the moment, or to safeguard the truths that lie beyond them?
2. Watch Hindi podcast on both poems from the blog link. Embed the videos and write brief note on your understanding of this podcast
Understanding “On Being Asked for a War Poem” and “The Second Coming” by W. B. Yeats
Based on the discussion in the video podcast, Yeats’s poems emerge not as distant literary texts but as deeply engaged responses to the crises of his time war, political pressure, and pandemic trauma. Together, “On Being Asked for a War Poem” and “The Second Coming” reveal Yeats’s complex understanding of the poet’s role in moments of historical collapse.
1. On Being Asked for a War Poem: Silence as Resistance
At first glance, “On Being Asked for a War Poem” appears simple and restrained. Written in 1915 during the First World War, the poem responds to Yeats being asked to contribute a patriotic poem for a war-relief anthology. Instead of complying, Yeats writes a poem explaining why a poet should remain silent during such times.
This “silence,” however, is not apolitical. As the podcast explains, Yeats was an Irish nationalist living under British rule. Writing a patriotic poem for the British Empire his nation’s colonizer was morally impossible for him. His refusal becomes a powerful political gesture. By stating that poets have “no gift to set a state’s men right,” Yeats draws a sharp distinction between the poet’s truth and the politician’s “right.”
The poem argues that a poet’s responsibility lies not in propaganda or political correction, but in preserving human experience writing songs for the young or stories for the old. In a time when everyone was forced to take sides, Yeats’s refusal itself becomes an act of protest. The poem suggests that not speaking can sometimes be more ethical than speaking falsely.
2. The Second Coming: A World Falling Apart
Written in 1919, “The Second Coming” appears at first to contradict Yeats’s earlier call for poetic silence. This poem is loud, violent, and apocalyptic. Its famous opening “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”captures the extreme instability of the post-war world.
Traditionally, the poem is read as a response to World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Ireland’s political unrest. The image of the widening gyre suggests the collapse of old systems and beliefs. The Christian promise of salvation through the “Second Coming” is overturned; instead of Christ, a terrifying “rough beast” moves toward Bethlehem, signaling the birth of a brutal new age.
Yeats’s mystical philosophy of history, based on 2000-year cycles (gyres), informs this vision. For him, the Christian era was ending, and a violent, irrational epoch was beginning.
3. The Pandemic Perspective: Elizabeth Outka’s Insight
The podcast introduces a crucial modern interpretation developed by scholar Elizabeth Outka, who argues that “The Second Coming” must also be read through the lens of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemica context long ignored by literary critics.
This pandemic was not an abstract event for Yeats. While he was writing the poem, his pregnant wife, Georgie, was critically ill with the flu and close to death. Understanding this personal trauma transforms the poem’s imagery. Phrases like “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed” can be read not only as war imagery, but as literal references to the flu’s symptoms, which included severe bleeding. “The ceremony of innocence is drowned” evokes the way victims suffocated as their lungs filled with fluid an especially haunting image given Yeats’s fear for his wife and unborn child.
In this reading, the “rough beast” becomes a powerful symbol of the virus itself: invisible, faceless, indifferent, and unstoppable. Unlike war, a pandemic has no enemy with a face. Its blank, pitiless gaze mirrors the random cruelty of disease.
4. Reading the Two Poems Together
When read together, the two poems offer a coherent vision of Yeats’s artistic philosophy. In “On Being Asked for a War Poem,” Yeats refuses to engage in narrow political messaging. In “The Second Coming,” he does not address politicians at all; instead, he confronts the total collapse of political, spiritual, and biological order.
Yeats does not contradict himself he evolves. He avoids propaganda but refuses silence when the entire human world is unraveling. His poetry becomes a space where war, nationalism, pandemic fear, and spiritual crisis intersect.
Conclusion
Based on the podcast, these poems show Yeats as neither detached nor escapist. He was a poet deeply shaped by his historical moment, who resisted political simplification and captured the layered reality of crisis. His work reminds us that poetry does not merely record events it reveals how those events are lived, feared, and endured.
In an age marked by political polarization, misinformation, and global pandemics, Yeats’s century-old poems continue to speak with unsettling clarity, asking the same question they asked in his time: what should an artist do when the world itself seems to be falling apart?
3. Refer to the study material - researchgate: Reply in the blog to the (i) Discussion question, (ii) Creativity activity and (iii) Analytical exercise
1. How does Yeats use imagery to convey a sense of disintegration in The SecondComing?
Introduction
In “The Second Coming,” W.B. Yeats uses vivid and symbolic imagery to express a powerful sense of disintegration, chaos, and loss of order in the modern world. His images portray the breakdown of civilization, morality, and spirituality in the aftermath of war and social upheaval.
1. The Image of the Widening Gyre
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer.”
The “widening gyre” symbolizes the collapse of control and order.
The falcon and falconer image shows a loss of connection between man and his guiding principles, between authority and obedience, or between God and humanity.
It reflects the disintegration of harmony and unity that once held society together.
2. Collapse of Moral and Social Order
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
This is one of the most famous images of civilizational decay in literature.
The “centre” represents moral and spiritual stability, and its collapse shows that no central value or belief system remains to hold the world together.
“Anarchy” suggests chaos, violence, and confusion, dominating the modern age.
3. The “Blood-Dimmed Tide” and Loss of Innocence
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”
The “blood-dimmed tide” symbolizes war, destruction, and moral corruption sweeping across humanity.
The drowning of the “ceremony of innocence” represents the death of purity, faith, and moral values.
This imagery captures the spiritual darkness of the 20th century after the World War.
4. The Monstrous Vision: The Rough Beast
“A shape with lion body and the head of a man, / A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.”
This terrifying image shows the birth of a new and inhuman era.
The creature’s “blank and pitiless” gaze reflects the absence of compassion or divine order in the modern world.
It symbolizes a monstrous future, where violence and evil replace faith and innocence.
5. The Final Image of Doom
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
The “rough beast” is an anti-Christ figure, representing the emergence of evil and destruction instead of salvation.
The verb “slouches” suggests decay, heaviness, and degeneration, emphasizing the moral downfall of civilization.
Conclusion
Through a series of powerful, symbolic, and apocalyptic images, Yeats vividly portrays a world falling apart—a civilization losing its moral, spiritual, and social foundations. The images of the widening gyre, the blood-dimmed tide, and the rough beast collectively convey a vision of disintegration, making “The Second Coming” one of the most haunting depictions of modern chaos and despair in English poetry.
2. Do you agree with Yeats’s assertion in On Being Asked for a War Poem that poetry should remain apolitical? Why or why not?
Introduction
I partially agree with W.B. Yeats’s assertion in On Being Asked for a War Poem that poetry should remain apolitical, but the relevance of this view depends on the poet’s intention, context, and the nature of the crisis. Yeats presents a philosophical and modernist perspective, emphasizing that poetry’s highest purpose is to explore timeless truths and spiritual reflection, rather than serving immediate political needs.
1. Yeats’s Perspective
In the poem, Yeats states:
“I think it better that in times like these / A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth / We have no gift to set a statesman right.”
This line reveals several important ideas:
Poetry as a spiritual and artistic pursuit: Yeats views poetry not as a tool for propaganda or political commentary, but as a medium for exploring universal human experience and enduring truths.
Recognition of limits: The poet cannot directly influence political outcomes or advise leaders; the poet’s domain is reflection and insight, not governance.
Modernist detachment: Yeats aligns with modernist ideals of distancing the poet from direct political engagement, emphasizing existential and philosophical observation over emotional or political reaction.
2. Arguments Supporting Yeats’s View
Preservation of Artistic Integrity:
Poetry risks being reduced to propaganda or moralizing if it engages directly with political issues.
By remaining apolitical, the poet ensures that literary quality, imagination, and universality are maintained.
Acknowledgment of Poet’s Limitations:
Poets cannot correct statesmen or solve political crises.
Yeats’s emphasis on the limitations of influence underscores that poetry’s strength lies in interpretation, insight, and ethical reflection, not practical intervention.
Timelessness of Poetry:
Politically charged poetry often reflects the immediate historical moment, making it less relevant over time.
Apolitical poetry can achieve a universal and enduring resonance, addressing fundamental human experiences beyond the ephemeral concerns of politics.
3. Arguments Against Yeats’s View
Historical Precedent of Political Poetry:
Many poets have historically engaged directly with politics, especially in times of crisis.
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, for instance, wrote war poetry that exposed the brutal realities of World War I, challenging glorified notions of heroism and national pride.
Moral Responsibility of the Poet:
In periods of social unrest or conflict, poets may feel compelled to bear witness to injustice.
Choosing silence could be seen as complicity or moral detachment, undermining poetry’s ethical function.
The Political Nature of Art:
Even seemingly apolitical works reflect social and historical contexts.
Complete apoliticism is difficult to achieve; poetry inherently emerges from human experience and societal structures
4.Comparative Perspective: Yeats, Owen, and Sassoon
Aspect
W.B. Yeats
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Approach to War
Philosophical, apolitical, reflective
Graphic realism, exposes physical and psychological suffering
Satirical and critical of military leadership
Tone
Abstract, restrained, contemplative
Empathetic, haunting, emotionally intense
Angry, sardonic, confrontational
Purpose of Poetry
Explore timeless truths, spiritual reflection
Expose futility and horror of war, provoke empathy
Protest against injustice, critique societal and military failures
Modernist Elements
Explore timeless truths, spiritual reflection
Emphasis on individual experience and trauma
Combines realism with social critique, emotional immediacy
5. Balancing Apolitical and Political Poetry
Yeats’s approach does not deny the value of politically engaged poetry; rather, it emphasizes a personal choice rooted in artistic priorities.
Politically engaged poets like Owen and Sassoon show that poetry can illuminate human suffering and challenge social injustice, while still achieving high artistic quality.
Both approaches are valid: apolitical poetry offers timeless philosophical reflection, whereas political poetry engages with immediate social and historical realities.
Conclusion
Yeats’s assertion in On Being Asked for a War Poem reflects a modernist, philosophical approach to poetry, prioritizing reflection, spiritual insight, and universality. However, historical examples of war poetry by Owen and Sassoon demonstrate that poetry can also engage directly with social and political realities, providing moral commentary and emotional resonance.
Ultimately, whether poetry should remain apolitical depends on the poet’s intent, historical context, and ethical priorities. Both apolitical and politically engaged poetry contribute meaningfully to literature, offering distinct yet complementary insights into human experience.
Creative Activity:
Write a modernist-inspired poem reflecting on a contemporary global crisis,
drawing on Yeats’s themes and techniques[Generate with the help of Gen AI
like ChatGPT or Google Gemini or Meta WhatsApp or Microsoft Co-pilot]
“The Last Tide”
Turning and turning in a fractured orbit,
The cities hum beneath neon smog;
The rivers choke on plastic ghosts,
And the forests whisper in ash.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy spreads through digital veins,
While leaders speak in polished screens
And the hungry scroll past the fire.
A shape rises from melting ice:
Half-machine, half-beast, eyes empty as the void,
Its shadow crawling across continents,
Counting the centuries we failed to heed.
The ceremony of innocence is drowned,
By rising tides and silent alarms;
Yet still, in quiet corners, a voice murmurs,
A plea for reason, for remembrance, for care.
And what rough beast, its hour come at last,
Slouches toward tomorrow on carbon wings,
Its claws deep in the history we ignored,
Its roar the echo of our own making.
(Source - ChatGPT)
About Poem
The modernist-inspired poem “The Last Tide” reflects a contemporary global crisis particularly climate change and societal collapse through Yeatsian themes of chaos, historical cycles, and apocalyptic vision.
The opening imagery of a “fractured orbit,” polluted rivers, and burning forests evokes a world spinning out of control, while the lines “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” mirror Yeats’s famous depiction of moral and social disintegration, highlighting political indifference and digital apathy.
The monstrous hybrid shape rising from melting ice symbolizes the consequences of humanity’s technological and ecological negligence, linking historical inaction to present catastrophe. Yet, amidst despair, the murmuring voice represents human conscience and the potential for reflection and ethical response.
Through fragmented structure, vivid symbolism, and enjambment, the poem conveys both the urgency of the crisis and the possibility of redemption, merging Yeatsian modernist techniques with pressing contemporary concerns.
3. Analytical Exercise:
Compare the treatment of war in On Being Asked for a War Poem with other war poems by Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon.
The theme of war has been a significant subject in poetry, particularly during the First World War, where poets sought to articulate the horrors, moral ambiguities, and emotional realities of conflict. W.B. Yeats’s On Being Asked for a War Poem differs markedly from the vivid depictions of war by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, reflecting not only their differing poetic philosophies but also their distinct approaches to the representation of war.
1. W.B. Yeats: Silence as Resistance
In On Being Asked for a War Poem, Yeats refuses to write a conventional war poem, stating:
“I think it better that in times like these / A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth / We have no gift to set a statesman right.”
Themes and Approach:
Refusal of Propaganda: Yeats believes poetry should not be used for political purposes or moral instruction. He emphasizes that poetry should focus on the eternal rather than the temporal.
Personal vs. Public Voice: The poem highlights the poet’s spiritual and introspective role, contrasting with the public, emotional, and politically engaged tone of Owen and Sassoon.
Modernist Detachment: Yeats embodies modernist ideals by distancing himself from heroism and nationalism, portraying the poet as an observer rather than a commentator on political events.
2. Wilfred Owen: The Pity of War
Owen’s war poetry, including Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, presents the brutal realities of war with graphic imagery.
Themes and Approach:
Unflinching Realism: Owen portrays the physical and psychological horrors of combat, e.g.,
“If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs…”
This stark realism contrasts with Yeats’s abstract philosophical detachment.
Anti-Propaganda: Like Yeats, Owen resists glorifying war, but he exposes its futility and inhumanity directly.
Empathy and Sacrifice: Owen focuses on the suffering of soldiers as victims of political machinery, highlighting human vulnerability in war.
3. Siegfried Sassoon: Satire and Anger
Sassoon’s poetry, such as The General and Base Details, employs biting satire and direct critique of military authority.
Themes and Approach:
Critique of Authority: Sassoon exposes the detachment and incompetence of leaders:
“‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General said… / But he did for them both by his plan of attack.”
Emotional Outrage: Sassoon’s tone conveys anger and moral indignation at the senseless waste of life.
Direct Engagement: Unlike Yeats, Sassoon uses poetry as protest and social commentary, confronting injustice and demanding accountability.
4. Contrasts in Poetic Philosophy
Aspect
Yeats
Owen
Sassoon
Purpose of Poetry
Reflection on timeless truths; apolitical
Convey the horrors of war; anti-propaganda
Protest against military incompetence; moral critique
Imagery and Tone
Abstract, philosophical, restrained
Graphic, empathetic, haunting
Satirical, angry, confrontational
Modernist Elements
Detachment, focus on spiritual and existential concerns
Individual experience and trauma; realism
Engagement with contemporary events; realism and irony
5. Commonalities
All three poets reject the romanticization of war.
Each explores the moral, psychological, and social consequences of conflict.
While their methods differ, all question traditional notions of heroism and patriotism.
Conclusion
Yeats’s On Being Asked for a War Poem exemplifies philosophical reflection and modernist detachment, emphasizing the poet’s spiritual and ethical observation rather than direct engagement with war. In contrast, Owen and Sassoon confront war’s physical, emotional, and social realities with vivid imagery, empathy, and satire. Together, these poets provide a multifaceted literary perspective, ranging from introspective contemplation to urgent moral and social critique.
