Things Fall Apart

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Things Fall Apart featuring WB Yeats' The Second Coming.

Yeats' biographer, Roy Foster, explores why The Second Coming, one of his celebrated poems, written in 1919, has continued to capture the zeitgeist.

Once more, as so many times before, a beast seems to be slouching towards Bethlehem. Foster explores why his poems still tell truths.

Originally broadcast to mark 150 years since the birth of WB Yeats.

With readings by Sinead Cusack and Stephen Rea.

Producer: Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.