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  • Essay / Spiritual Imagery in The Root Doctor of Rock N Roll and The Second Coming

    Both Yeats and Quincy Troupe used spiritual imagery in their poetry. "The Root Doctor of Rock n Roll" and "The Second Coming" are full of spiritual imagery, but the main pieces used were the sphinx, the apocalypse, the spiritual interconnectedness of all men and the "Root Doctor" or healing supernatural. power.Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay In “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats, he used an immense amount of spiritual imagery, probably because it was a poem about the apocalypse. , which is a spiritual concept. The poem describes what would happen at the end of the 2000 year cycle of Christ's reign, when the anti-Christ would reign. It describes a very horrible scene, where complete anarchy is in action and the world as we know it is collapsing. Yeats writes, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” (Yeats 884). This is a very eloquent way of showing the complete and utter chaos that he said would occur at the end of the Christian era. This means that all good people will lose hope and the worst people will be full of "passionate intensity" or extreme motivation. It's a pretty scary concept, as well as a good piece of spiritual imagery. He also talks about viewing an image of the “Spiritus Mundi,” or Great Memory. It is an image of a creature with "a form with the body of a lion and the head of a man, a look as empty and merciless as the sun." (Yeats 884), or better known as the Sphinx. This Sphinx is a good spiritual image because it represents a very apocalyptic being, with the head of a man but the body of a lion. This represents the intellect and cunning of a human, but the raw ferocity and killer instinct of a beast like a lion. He sees this image not because he is there when it arises, but through a universal reservoir of symbolic images from the past. This is a key universal spiritual concept that is also addressed in Quincy Troupe's "Poem for the Root Doctor of Rock n Roll." Both poems are about how we are all spiritually connected. Yeats's method is slightly more universal than Troupe's, but both methods talk about how you can acquire information from others, through a spiritual storehouse. This can be seen in Troupe's poem when he says "back to the magical connection of your ancestors, their transparent souls threading your breath, their blood in your lock". (Troop 868). This implies that his ancestors nourish his music through some sort of spiritual connection. This is similar to how Yeats uses the Spiritus Mundi. They both use this great spiritual storehouse to access information, an image of the destructive sphinx for Yeats and music for Troupe. Another spiritual image discussed is Doctor Racine. This is a hoodoo term used to describe the healer or shaman of a group of people. These people are extremely important in the hoodoo religion and their insight is highly valued. The very title of the poem says it all, because if you call Chuck Berry the "Root Doctor of Rock n Roll", you are insinuating that he is the healer or spiritual leader of the religion of "Rock n Roll". This would also mean that his music would have healing power, which the Quincy troupe believed. This is present when he says "the poetry of the hoodoo down and you were the mojo hand of the singing ju-ju". (Troop 867). A mojo hand was a bag of spiritual items used to protect an individual from harm and rid them of illness. SO, »..