The speaker of the poem is not a clearly identifiable person, and indeed there may be more than one speaker. In the first stanza, the speaker’s tone is cold and removed as if narrating from above the Fall of Man. At times, it is almost as if the speaker is a God who has abandoned the humanity he sees swirling in the “widening gyre” (1). In the second stanza, however, the tone changes considerably. Instead of the removed, objective gaze of the first stanza’s speaker, the speaker now feels like an individual who is exasperated and desperate. As if trying to convince himself, the speaker repeats “Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand” (10-11). In a final desperation the speaker yells, “The Second Coming!” (11). The tone quickly shifts to dread and confusion as the strange shape of the lion-man appears...