Well it was one I didn't revise for the night before - so I forgot most of it
Had to treat it like an unseen.
What did you write?
I did:
"Intro - Written after WW1. Cautionary tale to stop further wars.
Point 1 - "Blood dimmed tide / The ceremony of innocence is drowned". My first point was weak as I was just starting the exam. I said how "innocence" got represent Maud Gonne and the blood dimmed tide is a reference to Maud's involvement in revolutionary politics which changed her world. Compare Maud's involvement to revolutionary politics to Leda and the Swan, both were deeply effected by the two elements. Linked "slow thighs" in the Second Coming to "loosening thighs" in Leda.
Point 2 - Biblical language. Second Coming - Jesus came back to life at Easter (Easter Rising?).
Point 3 - Something about revolutionaries changing Ireland - bloodshed. "The best lack conviction / Whilst the worst are full of passionate intensity" - Linked to the Fisherman and him sitting in "his seat" and letting the revolutionaries change the world.
Point 4 - Structure. Stanza 1 is 8 lines, 2 is 14 lines. Yeats allegedly proposed to Maud Gonne on the 14 August 1917 - reference? Said both stanzas start with repetition - Stanza 1 is about the world's descent into chaos, whereas, Stanza 2 is about the apocalyptic world. Repetition shows it's the same world, etc.
Conc - Quoted Edmund Burke : "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for the good man to do nothing". Linked to Yeats belief about the revolutionaries changing the world for the worse, etc.