The Lake Isle of Innisfree WB Yeats
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. Stanza 1: 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’.
Stanza 2: In the second stanza Yeats imagines finding harmony on the island: ‘And I shall have some peace there’.
Stanza 3: 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 The poet wishes to escape to a beautiful place with wonderful light and colours The poet celebrates the beauty of a private place on a country lake
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’ 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. Yeats uses contrast especially between the colourful images of the island and the dull image of the city There is also a strong image of the poet’s memory of Inisfree. He claims to ‘hear it in the deep heart's core’.
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.
Alliteration ‘lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore’. The ‘l’ and ‘s’ sounds here show alliteration and create music.
Assonance 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 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’. ‘And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings’.
Rhythm: The rhythm is soft, dreamy and hypnotic.
The repetition of ‘go’ in the first line, other internal rhymes, 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 poet’s urgent desire to leave the ‘grey’ city.
Questions Consider the poem as a pleasant piece of escapism. What does the poet want to escape from? The poem is remarkable for its beauty of sound and leisurely rhythms. How do such features help to convey the theme? In what ways, do you think, might the kind of life imagined in the poem prove satisfactory? Would you enjoy the kind of life the speaker wants to create for himself?