WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

“ THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE”

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows 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.

 

 

 

 

The lake isle of Innisfree

 

Title: The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Author: William Butler Yeats
Year of publication:1893, London
Book: The Rose

ANALYSIS

This poem expresses the author’s eargerness of living in Innisfree.

Also, it expresses the idea that nature provides and inheretly restorative place to which human beings can go to escape the chaos and corrupting influences of civilization, and he is ready to live in a voluntary exile, exiled from the city, far away from the roadways and the pavements grey, and near to the idealised rural life. The poet dreams of moving from the city to live alone on an island: ( line 1 & 9) “ I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree”.Yeats repeats that to emphasize his wish to travel to the island.

The poem focuses on Innisfree as a place of exile in the first stanza.The speaker wants to get away from people (line 4)”live alone” and he imagines himself living in a little island in a small cabin ( line 2) “and a small cabin build there”.

In the second stanza, he imagines finding some peace there, on the island (line 5) “and I shall have some peace there”; also he is concerned he will find harmony. He idealizes the landscape , as a place full of beauty and happiness:” the morning to where the criket sings” or “and evening full of the linnet’s wings”. He describes Innisfree as a simple, natural environment where he could build a cabin and live alone. Yeats , is exploring conflicting dualities during the poem, the beauty of nature versus the sombre monotony of city existence.

In the thrird stanza, the speaker states his decision to leave the city: ( line 11 & 12)” while I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, Ihear it in the deep heart’s core”. The author is treating the topic of the quest for truth is fundamental, whether experienced through the emotional self, reason, or the imagination.

STYLE

The Lake Isle of Innisfree has very strong pastoral images used to portray his ideal existence. The world described is almost a paradise, without the interference of civilization to spoil things. Every line of the poem serves to emphasize this image of an ideal life. The author uses images for describing the atmosphere well and metaphors ( line 6) “ dropping from the veils of the morning...”.Also the speaker emphaphasizes the contrast between the city and the island during all the poem.He uses “alliteration” to reinforce the sound and mood of the poem ( line 10 ) “ I hear lake water lapping with low sounds...”

The Lake Isle of Innisfree is written with an abab rhyme scheme corresponding to each of the three quatrains in the poem, which are defined as a stanza composed of four lines which have not a set line length. The vocabulary is accesible and simple.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

I think the speaker wants to share with us a world of fantasy. The author wants to recreate for us a landscape full of beauty of nature where we can only feel softness, warmth and cleanness of the air in the atmosphere far away from the civilization where we can not reach silence or happiness.Yeats seems to feel a big yearning for his origins, for his childhood in Ireland, so, he manages to transmit that feeling.

 

 

SOURCES

Poem “ The Lake Isle of Innisfree” Poet: William Butler Yeats- All poems of William Butler Yeats, 6 May 2006 www.poemhunter.com/william-butler-yeats/poet-3057/