In other words, the world’s trajectory along the gyre
of science, democracy, and heterogeneity is now coming apart, like
the frantically widening flight-path of the falcon that has lost
contact with the falconer; the next age will take its character
not from the gyre of science, democracy, and speed, but from the
contrary inner gyre—which, presumably, opposes mysticism, primal
power, and slowness to the science and democracy of the outer gyre.
The “rough beast” slouching toward Bethlehem is the symbol of this
new age; the speaker’s vision of the rising sphinx is his vision
of the character of the new world.
For those of us who don't catch what Yeats is throwing
