I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart's core.
From: http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/775/
This poem was one of the first poems by Yeats. It was written when the author was young, twenty-five years old, and he was living in London. The isle of the poem really exists, and is situated in Ireland, in Lough Gill. There were two main reasons why the poet wrote these verses: firstly, he was a young Irish person who was living in London, a big city which is not in his country. Ireland is a country whose economy was based on the agriculture, so Yeats wants to return to this type of life, the life of his childhood (William Butler Yeats-Biography and works); secondly, at that moment, Yeats knew that Thoureau[1] had been living for two years on that island, and Yeats was shocked by this attitude and he wanted to emulate Thoreau (Thoreau reader).
This poem is composed by three stanzas, each of the three stanzas has the same ABAB rhyme scheme. The three first verses of each stanza are written in hexameter, with six stresses in each line; the last line of each stanzas shortens the line to tetrameter, with only four stresses.
The poet starts the poem with a verse which shows us a decision: he wants to go to Innisfree. In this line it would seem that it was a sudden decision, but we are going to see that the poet has been thinking a lot about that idea. The next three lines show us that it is a premeditated decision, he knows how the house will be where he will live: “and a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made”; what he will produce for a living: “nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee”; and how he will live: “and live alone in the bee-loud glade”.
In the second stanza, the poet explains to us the reason why he wants to go to the island: “And I shall have some peace there”. And in the next verses he explains how the different parts of the day are (midnight, noon and evening) on the lake isle. It gives us the idea that Yeats will achieve this peace that he wants in a concrete way: having nothing to do. He only wants to stay on the island contemplating nature. We can see that this idea of peace is linked to two concepts: nature and slowness, and these two concepts were very difficult to find in a city like London, where Yeats was living during these years.
The third stanza starts with a verse where the first part is the same as the first part of the first verse of the poem: “I will arise and go now”; it returns the reader to Yeat’s decision, this verse reaffirms the idea of going to the island, and it is also reinforced by the second part of the verse: “for always night and day”. The second verse of this stanza gives us the sensation that the poet is near the island, after walking night and day: “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore”. However, the two last verses break the effect of the poem in the reader, these two verses explain the situation of the poem, the poet is walking through a roadway and he has stopped a moment to think about his future, he wants to go to Innisfree and he is thinking about it while he is walking. In these two verses, the poet does not say that he will not go to the island; however, these two verses give the idea, at least to me, that the poet will not go to the island. It is a particular impression, and in the poem the poet uses the future in all the verses, so you must have thought that the poet is not going to the island yet and he is still in the city. However this two verses change my vision of the poem, and if when you read these two verses, you read again the poem, you will discover that all the poem is written in a very fantastic way, because it is not possible that a person could live in the way that Yeats has described.
To sum up, the poet does not want to say with this poem that he is thinking in going to the isle of Innisfree; the poet is saying that it is a fantasy that he has, and this fantasy allows him to overcome all the difficulties that he has in his life. He knows that he will not go to the island, but he likes thinking about it because it is a way to escape from reality.
Bibliography:
· Thoreau reader
Richard Lenat ed. Visited 23 March 2006.
http://eserver.org/Thoreau/thoreau.html
· William Butler Yeats-Biography and woks
Jalic LLC ed. Visited 23 March 2006.
http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/
· Welcome to the Yeats society
David Smith ed. Visited 23 March 2006.
http://www.yeatssociety.org/
[1] Henry David Thoureau (1817-1862), American writer, philosopher and naturalist