Written in 1888, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ is one of William Butler Yeats’ most celebrated poems. It was published several years after it was written, in 1893, and is a perfect example of Yeats at his best. He lived the experiences of this poem, growing up in the city and spending periods of time in the countryside. One of his favorite places to visit was County Sligo where the real isle of Innisfree can be found.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Butler YeatsI 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 morning 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 dayI 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.
Summary
‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ is a beautiful poem that depicts a speaker’s longing to leave the city and spend time on the isle.
He speaks of Innisfree in an idealistic way, describing the almost magical qualities of the different times of day, and the unbroken solitude and peace he will achieve once he goes. The speaker within this piece relates peace directly to nature and throughout the poem. It is revealed by the end that the speaker dreams so intently about reaching Innisfree because he lives in an environment that does not contain the natural elements that are critical to his happiness.
Themes
Throughout ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ the poet engages with themes that include nature, peace, and spirituality. These three themes are all interrelated. Yeats asks the reader to regard nature as he does, valuable in and of itself, without human intervention. It is a place to find peace and connect with the world on a deeper, spiritual level because it is so far from that which we commonly experience in day-to-day life. The isolated nature of this natural area that he’s longing for is also an important element of his happiness. It is an escape from industrialism as well as from other people.
Structure and Form
The poem consists of 12 lines, separated into three quatrains, and an abab cdcd efef rhyme scheme. The form of this poem is clear through the straightforward formatting of the quatrains and rhyme schemes, but when a closer look is taken small schemes and formatting decisions reveal what has made this poem a classic. Two instances in the last stanza are prime examples.
Literary Devices
Yeats makes use of several literary devices in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’. These include but are not limited to alliteration, repetition, and imagery. The alliteration that is found in line two of quatrain three, “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.” When this poem is read aloud, the repeated use of the letter “l” creates an auditory motion that is reminiscent of the waves the line is describing. Additionally, in the line that comes directly after, “While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,” Yeats has chosen not only to rhyme the ending word of this line, “grey” with the ending word, “day,” but has also allowed a rhyme to exist within the line itself; “grey,” rhyming with “roadway.”
Imagery is one of the most important techniques in this poem. Look for example at the first two lines of stanza two which read: “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, / Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings”. These words tap into several different senses, encouraging the reader to feel, hear, and see a scene.
Analysis of The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Stanza One
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.
The speaker begins by telling the reader of his intentions, he will, “arise and go now,” to the isle of Innisfree. In this first line, the word “go” is repeated twice, the Yeats made this choice to provide special emphasis on the importance of the speaker’s action. The speaker is determined, he must, and will, go to Innisfree. The second line provides additional details as to what he is going to do when he gets there. He plans to create a “small” home for himself. The use of the word “small” in this line gives the impression that he is going to be the only one living in the house, without any family or relations of any kind. He plans to build the cabin from clay and wattles (sticks and rods). Once he’s living in his small cabin, he dreams of having “nine” rows of bean plants and a hive for presumably, many honeybees, as in the next line, the glade (or small clearing in a forest), is filled with their sound.
Stanza Two
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
The second quatrain of ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ provides the reader with the reasoning behind his desire to travel to Innisfree: to find some peace. This stanza also contains the important metaphorical relationship that Yeats sets up between the notion of peace and nature. He describes peace as “dropping slow,” “from the veils of…morning to…the cricket[s].” Yeats relates peace to morning dew. In the glade, he will be surrounded by it, from the leaves on the trees to the grass on the ground, “where the cricket sings.”
Continuing on, the poet describes three more times of the day and the magical qualities they possess on the lake isle of Innisfree. The imagery calls up sequences that further emphasize the importance of the daydream to the speaker, midnight “glimmer[s],” noontime glows purple, and the evening is full of the beating of “linnet’s wings” (a small brown and gray finch, with a reddish-brown breast).
Stanza Three
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.
It is at this point in the poem that the speaker shakes himself out of his daydream in which he has described the scenes on the lake isle of Innisfree, and begins to address the real world. Once again he states he is going to leave for the isle, reinforcing the importance of the other uses of “go” in the first quatrain. This constant repetition of the action of leaving his home to create a new one, presents the question of, is he actually ever going to go? Has this dream been something he is now going to realize or does it only exist in his mind? These questions remain pertinent as the poem concludes.
Yeats continues the stanza by telling the reader that the speaker hears the water lapping at the shore all day and night. This dream has become a mantra, it is an obsession that has come to haunt him, and it is no more prevalent than when he “stand[s] on the roadway, or on the pavements grey.” It is now evident that the speaker is wishing to escape a world that is antithetical to his ideas of peace and happiness. It seems that the speaker lives in a city, or at least somewhere in which he is surrounded by roads and pavements, both of which are not classical manifestations of nature.
The poem concludes on a very somber note. The poem’s last line, “I hear it in the deep heart’s core” refers to the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore. The haunting images of the lake isle of Innisfree are heard not in his head but in his heart. The reader is left with unanswered questions regarding the reality of the speaker’s plan to, “go now, and go to Innisfree.” Will the speaker ever make it from his current home to the peace he needs to achieve happiness? Or will he remain in his city or town, stuck in a fantasy daydream he will never realize?
Similar Poetry
For readers who find themselves captivated by Yeats’ famous ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree,’ there are numerous other poems of a similar nature to explore. Poems like Pound’s ‘The Lake Isle’ (which was directly inspired by Yeats), as well as ‘Hymn to the Spirit of Nature’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‘ by William Wordsworth, and ‘To Autumn’ by John Keats are all good choices. Our list of 10 of the Best Nature Poems Every Poetry Lover Must Read, is also a great resource.
About William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats, more commonly known as, W.B. Yeats, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865. He was educated in London and was an instrumental figure in the defining years of the 19th century. Yeats wrote both poetry and plays, his early plays were focused mainly on interpreting Irish legends and his own personal spiritual beliefs. Later in his life, after 1910, his work took a turn, becoming more experimental and poetical. He started to create work that presented his anti-Nationalist views in the early part of his career, and he was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. He would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. During the last 16 years of his life, from 1923-1939, Yeats published a number of volumes of poetry, containing what is now considered his best work.
During the decade in which Yeats wrote, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Ireland was in the midst of significant financial struggles. It is possible that Yeats cast himself as the speaker in this poem; considering that Innisfree is an actual place, on Lough Gill in County Sligo, Western Ireland and that when he was a boy Yeats’ family visited County Sligo.
