Both Yeats and Quincy Troupe used spiritual imagery in their poetry. Both "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 people, and the "Root Doctor" or supernatural healing. candies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats, he used a tremendous amount of spiritual imagery, most likely 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 antichrist would reign. It describes a truly horrific scene, where complete anarchy is in action and the world as we know it is falling apart. 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 believed would happen when the Christian era came to an end. It means that all good people will give up hope, and the worst people will be full of “passionate intensity” or extreme motivation. This is a pretty scary concept, as well as a good example of spiritual imagery. He also talks about seeing an image from the “Spiritus Mundi,” or Great Memory. This is the image of a creature with "a form with the body of a lion and the head of a man, a gaze as empty and merciless as the sun." (Yeats 884), or better known as the Sphinx. This Sphinx is a good example of spiritual imagery because it represents a very apocalyptic being, with the head of a man but the body of a lion. This represents having the intellect and cunning of a human, but the raw ferocity and killing instinct of a beast such as a lion. He sees this image not because it is there when it arises, but through a universal storehouse of symbolic images from the past. This is a key universal spiritual concept that is also discussed in “Poem for the Rock n' Roll Doctor” by Quincy Troupe. Both poems talk 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 "return to the magical connection of your ancestors, to their seamless souls that permeate your breath, to their blood in your walk." (Trupa 868). This implies that his ancestors give him music through some sort of spiritual connection. This is similar to the way Yeats uses the Spiritus Mundi. Both use this spiritual department store to access information, an image of the destructive sphinx for Yeats and music for Troupe. Another piece of spiritual imagery discussed is the Root Doctor. 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 intuition is highly valued. The title of the poem itself says it all, because if you call Chuck Berry the “Root of Rock n Roll”, you are implying that he is the healer or spiritual leader of the “Rock n Roll” religion. This would also mean that his music would have healing power, which Quincy's crew believed. This is present when he says "the poetry of Hoodoo Down and you were Ju-Ju Crowing's mojo hand." (Trupa 867). A mojo hand was a bag of spiritual items used to protect an individual from evil and"..