Poems can be read with vast meanings and Yeats experimented with various meanings in his writings. He incorporated many religious references within this poem, thus it can be read in a religious apocalyptic expression. This enables readers of all different cultures and religious backgrounds to make connections with the poem. At the end of Stanza 1, Yeats adeptly describes the story of Noah’s ark, but the animals are not in an orderly manner, they are chaotic and distressed. The dramatized words “blood-dimmed tide,” (Stanza 1, line 5) shows the perspective of the animals which didn’t get to the ark. This represents the fall of religion and how the story differs from the Book of Revelations. Yeats shows his connection to occult in the second stanza. He refers to “Spiritus Mundi,” (stanza 2, line 12) a spirit of the world. He shows how the spirit of the world is no longer entirely sane and is now troubled. Line 6 stanza 2 is: “A shape with lion body and head of a man.” This is where Yeats uses background knowledge of a mythical creature to engage with the mind of the reader. Instead of Jesus he uses the term “rough beast” to describe the sphinx arising in the illusion of the rebirth of Christ as told in the Book of Revelation.
