Curated set · answers marked
What mythological beast does the speaker imagine rising in W. B. Yeats's "The Second Coming"?
AA phoenix
BA sphinx-like creature✓
CA dragon
DA centaur
Rationale
In "The Second Coming," Yeats presents a vision of "a shape with a lion's body and the head of a man" — a figure resembling a sphinx — gradually moving toward Bethlehem, symbolizing the onset of a new and foreboding historical era.
What mythological beast does the speaker picture rising in W. B. Yeats's "The Second Coming"?
AA phoenix
BA sphinx✓
CA dragon
DA griffin
Rationale
In "The Second Coming," Yeats depicts a vision of "A shape with lion body and the head of a man" — resembling a sphinx — slowly approaching Bethlehem, representing a new and foreboding era ready to be "born."
What mythical beast does the speaker imagine rising in W. B. Yeats's "The Second Coming"?
AA phoenix
BA sphinx-like creature with the body of a lion and the head of a man✓
CA seven-headed dragon
DA winged serpent
Rationale
In "The Second Coming," Yeats presents a vision of "A shape with lion body and the head of a man, / A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun" — a sphinx-like figure awakened in the desert sands, representing a new and frightening era on the horizon.