The End of the World in Yeats' Second Coming and What If It Were a Great Thing of a WindHell and Hell sulfur, a massive environmental disaster, a third world war; how will the world end? This problem can interrupt conversations or spark hour-long arguments; it can create a religion or cause people to renounce their faith. The answer to the ever-present question of how the world will ultimately end is a paradox; knowing the answer means that the last hour has come. Both EE Cummings and William Butler Yeats express their premonitions about when and why this awesome event might occur. Both prophesy of the horrible destruction of the world in their poems, “And If It Were a Wind” and “The Second Coming”; However, Cummings and Yeats disagree on the final cause of this destruction. While both use graphic images, stark contrast, and unique syntax to warn their readers of the ills of humanity, Cummings predicts that society's irresponsible use of technology will bring about the end of the world, while Yeats believes that men themselves, "the worst, full of passionate intensity," will ultimately bring about the downfall of civilization. Cummings' use of intense and somewhat disturbing imagery in his poem "What If It Were a Great wind" prompts readers to realize the extent of devastation caused by catastrophic, avoidable destruction. The first stanza of the poem, describing images such as the sun "bloodying the leaves", evokes terror in the reader. L The idea of ​​the sun, generally associated with warmth and love, destroying something it helped to develop, directly parallels the current role of technology in society. humanity, is slowly destroying the society it... middle of paper ...... thinkers since the dawn of time. EE Cummings and William Butler Yeats felt compelled to express their thoughts on the impending destruction of humanity. However, what they did not know at the time they wrote their prophetic poems was how almost frighteningly their predictions were coming true. Yeats's comments regarding world leaders and their "passionate intensity" prophesied the Holocaust of World War II and the autocracies created by Hitler and Stalin, while the masses "devoid of all conviction" sat back and watched with indifference passive. EE Cummings' description of man's misuse of technology was exemplified by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These poets sounded an alarm that was ignored; I hope we are now ready to heed their warnings so that their dire predictions do not ultimately prove true..