The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The "Lake Isle of Innisfree" is a poem written by William Butler Yeats in 1888. The poem was published first in the National Observer in 1890 and reprinted The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics in 1892. One of Yeats's earlier poems, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" was an attempt to create a form of poetry that was Irish in origin rather than one that adhered to the standards set by English poets and critics. [1] The poem, unlike many others from the era, does not contain direct references to mysticism and the occult, yet it received critical success in the United Kingdom as well as in France.[2]
He remembers Innisfree as a utopia that would supply all his needs. His memory tricks him into thinking it had a beautiful summer climate all year round.
Lake Isle of Innisfree is not to be confused with the song, "The Isle of Innisfree". Although the two works share a similar title they are completely different and original in their own right but are very often mistakenly thought to be one in the same. The song "Isle of Innisfree" was written by Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly.
Background
When Yeats was a child, his father had read to him from Walden by Henry David Thoreau, and Yeats described his inspiration for the poem by saying that while he was a teenager, he wished to imitate Thoreau by living on Innisfree, an uninhabited island in Lough Gill.[3]. He suggests that when he was living in Sligo, he would walk down Fleet Street and long for the seclusion of a pastoral setting such as the isle. The sound of water coming from a fountain in a shop window reminded Yeats of the lake that he had previously seen, and it is this inspiration that Yeats credits for the creation of the poem. [4]
In his youth, Yeats would visit the land at Lough Gill at night, often accompanied by his cousin Henry Middleton. On one occasion, they went out onto the lake at night on a yacht to observe birds and to listen to stories by the crew. The trips that Yeats took from the streets of Sligo to the remote areas around the lake set up for him the contrasting images of the city and nature that appear in the poem's text.[3]
Analysis
The poem is a twelve-line poem divided into three quatrains and an example of Yeats’s earlier lyric poems. Throughout the three short quatrains the poem explores the speaker’s longing for the peace and tranquility of Innisfree while residing in an urban setting. The speaker in this poem yearns to return to the island of Innisfree because of the peace and quiet it affords. He can escape the noise of the city and be lulled by the "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore." On this small island, he can return to nature by growing beans and having bee hives, by enjoying the "purple glow" of noon, the sounds of birds' wings, and, of course, the bees. He can even build a cabin and stay on the island much as Thoreau, the American Transcendentalist, lived on Walden Pond. During his lifetime it was—to his annoyance—one of his most popular poems and on one occasion was recited (or sung) in his honor by two (or ten—accounts vary) thousand boy scouts. [5]
Tone
In some parts of the poem, the tone is determined:
- I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
Mostly, however, the tone is quite dreamy:
- And a small cabin I will build there, of clay and wattles made
The wattle and daub show that he is unrealistic about his comfort and therefore a dreamer.
References
- ^ Kenner, Hugh. "The Conquest of English". A Colder Eye.Johns Hopkins University Press 1983 p.51
- ^ Jochum,Klaus Peter. "The Reception of W.B. Yeats in France". The Reception of W.B. Yeats in Eurpoe. Continuum 2006 p.33
- ^ a b Jeffares, Alexander Norman. W.B. Yeats: Man and Poet. Macmillan 1962 pp21–23
- ^ Yeats, William Butler. Autobiographies. London: Macmillan 1955, p.153
- ^ R. F Foster: W. B. Yeats, A Life. Vol. 1. The apprentice Mage