Question

In his poem “The Second Coming,” Yeats refers to the “Spiritus Mundi,” or the

A. dying spirit of the falcon.
B. predatory spirit of the Sphinx.
C. collective spirit of mankind.
D. innocent spirit of young children.

Answer 1

i beleive the answer to your question is A

Answer 2

The answer to your question is C. collective spirit of mankind.

Yeats wanted to find a way to describe the spirit that gave him the vision of the Sphinx. It could originally be thought that the "Spiritus Mundi" is the Sphinx but this assumption is incorrect as something else gave him the vision of the predatory Sphinx with the body of a lion and head of a man.