The narrator of WB Yeats's "The Second Coming" states that "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate certainty" (7-8). Although I don't agree with the statement itself, I agree with the words of the poem. In the context of the poem, which is "A simple anarchy unleashed upon the world" (4), the statement speaks to how those with evil intentions are quick to take advantage of chaos for their own agenda. But on their own, these words don't really mean anything. Applied to WB Yeats's other poem "An Irish Airman Foresaw His Death", the words still have some merit, even if they don't quite work in a situation like that of "The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock" by TS Elliot. Overall, the words don't have their stature in most other circumstances. “An Irish airman foresees his death” is a poem where the assertion of the best, lacking conviction, contains an element of truth. The speaker of this poem says that nothing drives him to fight in this war other than “a solitary impulse of pleasure” (11). Although he knows "that I will meet my destiny" (1), he does not fight...