The Lake Isle of Innisfree

WB Yeats (1865 - 1939) Relevant background

WB Yeats was born in 1865 in Dublin. His family was upper class. Yeats received classes in art and thus could paint a scene well with words. Despite dyslexia and early difficulty with learning the alphabet, he turned into the greatest Irish Poet of the Twentieth Century. He spent some of his early life in London. Thats where he wrote The Lake Isle of Inisfree at the age of 25. The Isle was a place he daydreamed about. He loved Sligo, his mothers home place and the location for The Lake Isle of Inisfree. The Lake Isle of Inisfree is a poem which shows that Yeats was a bit of dreamer, like a lot of poets. He liked to dream of a beautiful place like Inisfree. The poem also shows how simple use of language could achieve musical effects.

Summary This is a poem by WB Yeats in which he dreams of escaping the busy streets of London. He remembers Inisfree as a perfect little island that would supply all his needs. His memory tricks him into thinking it had a beautiful summer climate all year round. In the first stanza Yeats imagines building a tiny hut on the little island of Inisfree. He dreams of living on beans and honey which he will cultivate himself. Obviously he is unrealistic. He also wants to get away from people: live alone. In the second stanza Yeats imagines finding harmony on the island: And I shall have some peace there. He dreams further of living in a delightful climate there: noon a purple glow. He also dreams of listening to songbirds at dusk: evening full of the linnet's wings. In the third stanza the thought and action develops. Yeats states his decision to leave the pavements grey of London. He is obsessed with or crazed by the sound of lake water and has to leave the city. Finally he admits that he has a deep need to live in a beautiful place encircled by the sound of water: I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Themes The poet dreams of moving away from the city to live alone on an island: I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree. Note how the repetition of go emphasises his wish to travel away from the city.

The poet wishes to escape to a beautiful place with wonderful light and colours: There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow. Note how the repeated i and o sounds make it seem like a musical place. The poet celebrates the beauty of a private place on a country lake: I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. Note how the repeated l sound adds to the beauty of the situation.

Tones Sometimes the tone is determined: I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree. Note how the repetition of go emphasises his wish to depart. Sometimes the tone is dreamy: And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made. The clay and wattles show that he is unrealistic about his comfort and therefore a dreamer. Sometimes the tone is soft and warm [mellow]: for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings. This image of peace pouring from the morning mist and lasting till dusk when the cricket sings is very mellow. The repetition of dropping makes it very mellow. Sometimes the tone is bleak and sad: the pavements grey. By placing grey after pavement Yeats is emphasising how much it depresses him. He reveals a lonesome tone as he refers to the streets and pavements.

Imagery The images are a mixture of poetic descriptions of a beautiful place and realistic or true to life images. For example he describes the atmosphere well by imagining peace dropping from the morning sky: for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings. Thus Yeats uses metaphors. The morning does not literally or really have veils. This is word that suggests mists in the sky. Neither can peace drop in a physical sense. The word dropping is therefore another metaphor when used with peace. In the second line Yeats gives us a more physical image of the little cabin made of prehistoric clay and wattles. The hive for the honeybee is a real image. The image of the grey pavements of London streets is less pleasant but more real than many of the other images. Note how Yeats uses contrast especially between the colourful images of the island and the dull

image of the city. Overall the poem is based on two contrasting images: that of the city and the island. The colours purple and grey show this contrast. The island is bright and musical while the city is dreary. You can see this difference if you contrast lake water lapping on the island to the roadway in London where there is no peace. Note the pleasant l sound repeated in the Inisfree descriptions. There is also a strong image of the poets memory of Inisfree. He claims to hear it in the deep heart's core. This is a metaphor because the ear does not really connect to the heart. It is a way of emphasising the deep, spiritual feeling of the poet. The overall image is of memory. His memory gives him a desire to return there again for its beauty. The image of the ear listening to nature is repeated in five images throughout the poem: bee-loud, cricket sings, linnets wings, water lapping. Yeats also uses I hear twice, which emphasises the ear as a main image in this poem.

Sound effects This poem in particular contains repetition for musical effect. This music enhances [meaning that it adds to] the beauty of Inisfree. Alliteration [the repetition of first letters]: lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. The l and s sounds here show alliteration and create music. Note the 4 l sounds also in this quote: live alone in the bee-loud glade You can find more examples yourself. Assonance [repetition of vowels]: Note the ea' and ee sounds in I hear it in the deep heart's core. These sounds reveal a tone or mood of longing in the poet. Can you spot the long o sounds in the second and third stanzas? Rhyming [The words of the first and third lines rhyme and the words of the second and fourth lines rhyme in each stanza]: The end sounds in the first stanza are as follows: ee, ade, ee, ade. This is a regular pattern and is found in all the stanzas. Internal Rhyme [rhyming inside one line]: go in the first line: I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree. Can you find the internal rhyme in this example? And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings. Did you also see in this quote the other unusual rhyme created by the repetition of dropping in

two lines? That is called Cross Rhyme. Rhythm: The rhythm is soft, dreamy and hypnotic. The repetition of go in the first line, other internal rhymes, the cross rhyme, the end of line rhyming pattern, the alliteration, and assonance all contribute to this rhythm. The nine words of two syllables [like glimmer] in the second stanza increase the slow, dreamy atmosphere. By contrast the words are more often of one-syllable in the first and third stanzas, apart from about five words of two syllables in both. This creates a faster rhythm, which matches the poets urgent desire to leave the grey city.