Final answer:
The mood in Yeats's 'The Second Coming' is dark and foreboding, created by imagery and language that convey a world in chaos and on the verge of apocalyptic changes. Foreboding language and descriptive phrases enhance this ominous mood.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mood in 'The Second Coming'
The mood in William Butler Yeats's poem 'The Second Coming' is dark and foreboding. Yeats employs vivid imagery and language choices to invoke this mood. For example, he describes a world spinning out of control with the falcon unable to hear the falconer, signaling a breakdown of order. Words like 'blood-dimmed tide' and 'ceremony of innocence' being drowned contribute to this ominous atmosphere. The poem suggests a world on the brink of apocalyptic change, invoking a sense of dread and unease.
Yeats's phrasing and descriptions such as 'The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity,' further enhances the dark mood by suggesting moral decay and the rise of anarchy. The mythical image of a beast 'slouching towards Bethlehem' to be born implies a catastrophic future. The language used throughout the poem is rich in connotations, adding layers of meaning that support the foreboding atmosphere.