THE LAKE ISLE OF
INNISFREEE
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 te morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full 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.
(1890, 1892)
The poem that I am going to analyse
is “The Lake of Innisfree” written by Yeats in 1890-1892. One of the most
important ideas that we can find in the poem is about the dichotomy between the
city and the country and our necessity to escape from the city to the country
to relax .
First of all, we can notice a clear
dichotomy between the scenes of nature, like the one that he is describing when
he talks about Innisfree, ( “nine bean-rows will I have there …I hear lake
water lapping with low sounds by the shore”, third stanza) and the sad scene of
the city (“while I stand on the roadway, or the pavements grey”, third stanza).
In the first stanza, the poet is
describing how his life would be if he were living in Innisfree. The use of the
words “cabin” and “live alone” (first stanza) denote the necessity of the poet
for isolation far from the urban environment.
It is in the second stanza where we
can find the description of the imagery of the nature that transmits to the
reader the peace that the poet is
looking for ( “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping
slow, dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings, second
stanza). The poet is presenting the isle of Innisfree as his ideal place to
relax.
In the first and second stanzas we
perceive the poet’s desire of being there, in the isle of Innisfree, where he
can hear the sound of the lake “night and day” ( third stanza), however, it is
the third stanza which gives us back to reality. The reality of the city breaks
the dream in which the poet is floating and gives him back to the cool city.
The use of the adjective “grey” in the third stanza, denotes the negative
feeling of the poet when talking about the real environment in which he lives.
Finally, the last sentence that the
poet says: “I hear it in the deep heart’s core” (third stanza) I think is
crucial for the sense of the poem because it marks the limit between what is
the mere reality in which we live and the idyllic dream that we can only reach from our “deep heart’s
core”.
With regard to the form of the poem,
I can say that it is divided into three stanzas, each one contains four verses.
The rhyme is “a b a b”.
Another aspect to remark is the
title, “ The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, which reflects perfectly what the poem is
about and curiously, the name of the isle contains the word FREE, which is what
the poet is looking for. The only way to escape from reality for the author is
through the imagination and the sensations that are deep in his heart.
As a conclusion, I would like to say
that I like the poem very much because it reveals the real suffering that the
poet feels when evoking the images of his paradise in contrast with what is a
hell for him. And this is a sensation that we can extend to every single person
who feels prisoner of his reality. As human beings, we need to escape sometimes
from the oppressive atmosphere in which we live. So, if we cannot do it
physically, we can always use our mind and heart to try to reach this pleasure
that we long.