Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
E884265
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" is a famous apocalyptic line from W. B. Yeats’s poem "The Second Coming," often quoted to evoke social or political disintegration.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10767202 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold Context triple: [The Second Coming, notableLine, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold]
-
A.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
B.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough" is a famous opening line from Edward FitzGerald’s English translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, evoking an ideal of simple, contemplative pleasure in nature.
-
C.
Fire and Ice
"Fire and Ice" is a brief, widely studied lyric poem by Robert Frost that reflects on the destructive power of human emotions through the metaphor of the world's end.
-
D.
Break, Break, Break
"Break, Break, Break" is a short lyric poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, reflecting on grief, loss, and the relentless passage of time as symbolized by the sea.
-
E.
The Second Coming
The Second Coming is a British television drama written by Russell T Davies that reimagines the return of Christ in contemporary Manchester through an ordinary man who discovers he is the Son of God.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold Target entity description: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" is a famous apocalyptic line from W. B. Yeats’s poem "The Second Coming," often quoted to evoke social or political disintegration.
-
A.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
B.
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough" is a famous opening line from Edward FitzGerald’s English translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, evoking an ideal of simple, contemplative pleasure in nature.
-
C.
Fire and Ice
"Fire and Ice" is a brief, widely studied lyric poem by Robert Frost that reflects on the destructive power of human emotions through the metaphor of the world's end.
-
D.
Break, Break, Break
"Break, Break, Break" is a short lyric poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, reflecting on grief, loss, and the relentless passage of time as symbolized by the sea.
-
E.
The Second Coming
The Second Coming is a British television drama written by Russell T Davies that reimagines the return of Christ in contemporary Manchester through an ordinary man who discovers he is the Son of God.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
poetic line
ⓘ
quotation ⓘ |
| appearsInStanza | first stanza of "The Second Coming" ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
apocalyptic imagery in literature
ⓘ
decline of Western civilization (interpretive context) ⓘ |
| author |
W. B. Yeats
ⓘ
linked to:
W.B. Yeats
|
| culturalUse |
used to describe institutional breakdown
ⓘ
used to describe political crisis ⓘ used to describe social crisis ⓘ |
| firstPublicationDecade | 1920s ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1920 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn |
"The Second Coming"
ⓘ
linked to:
The Second Coming
|
| genreContext | modernist poetry ⓘ |
| hasCentreSpelling | British English spelling "centre" ⓘ |
| hasForm | two independent clauses separated by a semicolon ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
journalistic headlines about crisis
ⓘ
political discourse metaphors ⓘ titles of essays and books about decline ⓘ |
| influencedTitleOf |
"Things Fall Apart" (novel by Chinua Achebe)
ⓘ
linked to:
Things Fall Apart
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| lineNumberInPoem | opening of the third line of "The Second Coming" ⓘ |
| literaryMovementOfAuthor | Modernism ⓘ |
| medium | written text ⓘ |
| meterContext | appears within iambic pentameter variations ⓘ |
| nationalityOfAuthor | Irish ⓘ |
| oftenQuotedIn |
cultural criticism
ⓘ
historical analysis ⓘ political commentary ⓘ |
| partOf |
"The Second Coming"
ⓘ
linked to:
The Second Coming
|
| periodContext | post–World War I era ⓘ |
| quotationFrom |
"The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats
ⓘ
linked to:
The Second Coming
|
| quotedAs | "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold" in American English ⓘ |
| rhetoricalEffect |
heightened dramatic tension
ⓘ
sense of impending collapse ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
breakdown of central authority
ⓘ
loss of social cohesion ⓘ onset of chaos ⓘ |
| theme |
apocalypse
ⓘ
collapse of order ⓘ political disintegration ⓘ social disintegration ⓘ |
| workType | apocalyptic line ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold Description of subject: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" is a famous apocalyptic line from W. B. Yeats’s poem "The Second Coming," often quoted to evoke social or political disintegration.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.