Ms Cotter's Class

WB Yeats

The Lake Isle of Innisfree was written by Yeats while he was living in London in the late nineteenth century. It describes his yearning to live alone on an idyllic island on Lough Gill in Co. Sligo where he can enjoy the island’s natural beauty and serenity.

The poem opens with the emphatic statement ‘I will arise and go now and go to Innisfree.’ The words ‘will’ and ‘now’ as well as the repetition of the word ‘go’ add to the urgency of this statement, while the repetition of the word ‘and’ accompanied by the broad vowel sounds contribute to the overall dreamlike and peaceful tone of the opening line. Furthermore, the phrase ‘I will arise and go’ is taken directly from the bible, reminding us of the speaker’s spiritual link to the island.

The speaker states that he will build ‘a small cabin’ made from ‘clay and wattles.’ Once more, the broad vowel assonance slows the pace of the poem to reflect its tranquil tone. The speaker plans (somewhat unrealistically) to be entirely self-sufficient, keeping a ‘hive for the honeybee’ and immersing himself in the sounds of nature.

The second stanza is particularly lyrical and beautiful, as the poet employs sensuous imagery to depict the beauty of the island. The repetition of the word ‘peace’ in the first line as well as the word ‘slow’ reminds us that the speaker idealises the tranquility of nature. He uses a wonderful metaphor to describe the morning fog turning to dew, referring to it as the ‘veil of the morning.’ Similarly to the sound of the bees in the opening stanza, the speaker will hear the sound of the ‘cricket’ singing. These entirely natural sounds stand in stark contrast to the sounds Yeats would have been surrounded by in London. In this stanza, the speaker describes the island at each time of the day and night, and each moment is filled with sensuous beauty. He describes how the moon and starlight reflect the lake water at night, how the island’s heather appears as a ‘purple glow’ at noon and how the evening is full of ‘linnet’s wings.’

The opening lines of the last stanza repeat the opening lines of the poem, where the speaker reinforces his desire to go to Innisfree. We are presented with yet another natural and serene sound, which the poet creates with wonderfully euphonious (pleasant-sounding) alliteration, as he describes ‘lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore’. The last lines of the poem stand in stark contrast to the preceding lines, where the speaker mentions the ‘roadway’ and ‘pavements grey’ of London. There is a distinct lack of natural sounds and colour here, although the speaker will continue to hear the sounds of Innisfree in his ‘heart’s core.’