"Turning an turning in the widening gyre/ The Falcon cannot hear the falconer;/ Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold;/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" (Lines 1-4 W. B. Yeats.
The first four lines of, "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats ring true throughout, "Things Fall Apart," and served as inspiration for Cinua Achebe. Reading those lines reminded him of what his elders told him as a child, about the drastic change in their clan when the white man came about. Achebe's characters are fictional, however they still reflect the feelings of his elders, and connect with The Second Coming, through events and themes that make up Things Fall Apart.
The first two lines of the poem symbolize how the clan was stuck in a new and somewhat chaotic world in which the protagonist Okonkwo doesn't understand, and cannot adapt. He is the falcon, and the falconer are those who have changed. This is seen many times in the book, Especially when Obeirika, Okonkwo's best friend came to visit Okonkwo in Mbata, and told him of the church's new power over the clan of Umuofia. Since they thought that the God's would take care of the Christians, no one did anything. The church had led astray many men of honour, and they cut off their anklets that displayed rank, cutting off all ties to the tribe. The only rebuttal that the Christians heard was the song of mockery sang by the clansmen they took as prisoners. Okonkwo responded, "But I cannot understand these things you tell me. What has happened to our people? Why have they lost their power to fight?" (175) Upset and confused, Okonkwo cannot adapt to his new situation, or even react as he would have in his fierce war days. His emotions widen and get worse throughout the book just as the gyre in The Second Coming.
The third and fourth lines of the poem illustrate the feelings that Okonkwo had when it first dawned upon him that things were not the same.