The Lake Isle of Innisfree

William Butler Yeats

  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 honeybee,
  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 evenings full of the linnet's wings.

  I will arise and go now, for always night and day
  I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
  While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
  I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Commentary

I like that this one was written by the man who penned something as dark as “The Second Coming”. There is a quietness in this poem that I find arresting.So also, the simple, straight-forward sincerity reflected even in the rhyme pattern. An unassuming poem with a depth of feeling made all the more evident by its very understatement.

— Pavithra


The Wondering Minstrels, poem #309 · 4 January 2000

Guest poem submitted by Pavithra Krishnan

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