The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865. Yeats was the senator of the Irish Free State is 1922, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. He married Georgie Hyde Lees (who was a powerful figure in his poetry. Yeats was one of the foulders of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He was a poet, a cultural leader, and major playwright. Yeats died on January 28, 1939.

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 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 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.

While reading this poem, the pictures that flashed through my mind were astounding! I saw the cabin, the bees, the songs of the crickets, the lake— I saw the entire poem. Before I continue, there were two words I did not know when I started reading this poem. (It is always important to look up vocabulary words that are unfamiliar!) Wattles are material to make fences and walls that consist of rods or stakes interlace with twigs or branches. Also, a linnet is a brown or gray finch with a reddish breast and forehead. Plus, the poem is based of the small island, Innisfree, in Lough Gill, Ireland.

The poem's form consists of three stanzas with four lines each. Also, the rhyming scheme is ABAB for each stanza. I think the simple structure of the poem helps relay the simple message the author is trying to portray.

I believe the speaker in this poem is a city man who longs for peace and tranquility; the complete opposite from his home in the city. Many people need a break or a vacation to relax their mind and alleviate stress. What better place to enjoy life than a small island in Ireland?!?

Here are pictures of a linnet and a building made out of wattles and daub.