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    305 views11 pages

    The Lake Isle of Innisfree

    Uploaded by

    Lisa Jordan
    Poetry summary and explanation

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    The Lake Isle of Innisfree teen kee Ia) What's Inside ® Book Basics, @in Context ... @ Author Biography ... 3 4 Plot Summary... — © Plot Analysis .... 4» Quotes... symbols .. F Themes .. [B Narrative Voice .. Suggested Reading ® Book Basics AUTHOR William Butler Yeats YEAR PUBLISHED 1890 GENRE Fiction PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR “The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is narrated in the first person from the perspective of a speaker who longs to return to the ‘countryside in order to find peace. TENSE "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is narrated in present and future tenses, ABOUT THE TITLE "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" references an actual island on a lake in Ireland near where Yeats spent summers in his childhood, @ In Context Ireland and the Lake Isle of Innisfree "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" refers to an actual place in County Sligo, Ireland, that William Butler Yeats knew well from his childhood summers. The Isle of Innisfree is one of 20 small islands located within Lough Gill a freshwater lake. Although Yeats lived much of his life in the cities of Dublin and London, he spent his summers as a child in County Sligo, where his mother was from. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is written from the perspective of someone in an urban environment. It demonstrates the tension of modern lving, in which someone right year for a simpler, more peaceful way of life amid the bustle of "the roadway" or “pavements grey." Ireland was a largely rural and agrarian society up through the 18th century, although wealthy Anglo-Irish landlords controlled ‘many of the farms. In many ways this contrast is reflected in, the inherent tension in "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." The speaker is revealed to be yearning for a rural part of Ireland while trapped in an urban environment. By the time Yeats wrote "The Lake Isle in Innisfree,” he was living in London, feeling homesick for Ireland. ‘The Lake Isle of Inisfree Study Guide In Context 2 Thoreau and Walden Pond In 1854 the American transcendentalist writer Henry David ‘Thoreau (1817-62) published a book called Walden. Yeats found the book highly influential, as his father had read it aloud to him when he was a child. Yeats himself said, "I had stil the ambition, formed in Stigo in my teens, of living in imitation of ‘Thoreau on Innisfree, a little island in Lough Gill" Walden contains Thoreau's written reflections on the experience of living simply in nature. He built a cabin on Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts, and lived alone from 1845 to 1847. In Walden Thoreau lays out his motivations in much the same way the speaker in "The Lake Isle in Innisfree" does: | went to the woods because | wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if | could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. | did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. ‘Thoreau had hoped to be able to use his time at Walden to ‘experience solitude and find perspective on understanding the nnewiy industrialized society he lived in. He sought to understand how industrialism distanced humans from the peace of nature and self-knowledge. According to Thoreau his ‘experience taught him that living self-sufficiently in nature is a more authentic way to live and that nature is a source of ‘wisdom. Its a far better lifestyle, he said, than the modern, urban existence of working in factories or for someone else. ‘The reflection of Thoreau's ideas can be found in certain lines, of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” These lines refer to a desire to be alone, to build a small cabin and grow food, and to lve in the peacefulness that only nature can provide. Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. Romanticism and Modernism in Poetry Although Yeats is considered to be one of the preeminent ‘modernist poets of his time, his poetry career spanned the influences of both Romanticism and modernism. Romanticism as a movement is categorized by an emphasis on the imagination and lyricism. A poem such as "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" contains a great deal of Romanticist imagery, longing, and nostalgia as well as lyricism, which is reflected in the poem's structure of quatrains. Romanticists believed ‘greatly in the restorative powers and alluring qualities of the natural world. They also distrusted the progress of industrialism and saw it as a force that contributed to a way of life being lost. The speaker of the poem hints at the sense of alienation he feels within his current urban environment. This sense of solitude resulting from modernization became a hallmark that modernist poets investigated in their work. Yeats's life spanned the end of the 19th century, and he saw the havoc and horror created by World War (1914-18). The war profoundly changed the way many artists in the early 20th century approached their creative work and engaged with thelr subject matter. To read the entire span of Yeats's poetry is to ‘see a writer moving from a more traditional and formal style with structure and form to something more abstract and Uuntraditional. Yet threaded throughout Yeats's poems are fierce loyalty to and reverence for Irish culture and identity. Celtic Mythology Yeats's work is rich with allusions to Celtic mythology, an early influence that coincided with his interest in the occult. As literary scholar C. Stuart Hunter notes, the "supernatural" elements that influence "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" come directly from Celtic mythology. By the time he was writing "The LLake Isle of Innisfree," Yeats had already published Fairy and Folk Tales of the irish Peasantry (1888) and based many of his Poems on Irish folk mythology. Further, in Yeats's Autobiographies (1916, 1935, 1936) he writes of his childhood fascination with folk stories about the Tuatha Dé Danaan and, the Danaan Quicken tree, which were connected with Innisfree, near the place where Yeats spent his summers in his youth. Bo course Her ‘The Lake Isla of Innisfree Study Guide ‘Author Blography 3 ‘The Tuatha Dé Danaan were believed to be early invaders of Ireland who went underground and became underworld rulers, ‘and controllers of magic after the Gaels defeated them. Much like mythical fairies, the Tuatha Dé Danan have the ability to ‘enchant humans and cause them to lose interest in material reality. The Danaan Quicken tree was a large tree guarded by monsters. The tree's fruit was of the gods and gave virtue to those who ate it. In the story, a man kills the monsters at his lover's request and steals the fruit for her. But he never gives, his lover the fruit because he eats it on his way to her. Its virtuous power overwhelms him, and he dies. This story, Yeats admits in Autobiographies, inspired him to choose Innisfree to be his ideal place of retreat. Innisfree was not simply an ideal landscape but one specifically linked to the Celtic past. Yeats's perspective on the physical landscape in the poem is colored by his belief that the supernatural underlies nature. % Author Biography Early Life Born in Dublin on June 13, 1865, William Butler Yeats was the ‘eldest of four children born to Susan Mary Pollexfen and John Butler Yeats, who was training as a lawyer when William was born. Soon after, John Yeats left his studies to become a portrait artist, teaching his children, including young William, to love the fine arts. After finishing high school, William Yeats, enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin with the hopes of becoming a painter. To support himself at school, Yeats became a journalism correspondent. Around the same time his first poems were published in The Dublin University Review in 1885, Yeats left his studies altogether. Early Career and Romance In the late 1880s Yeats moved to London, where he began ‘spending more time with his father's friends, English novelist Wiliam Morris (1834-96), Irish playwright George Bernard ‘Shaw (1856-1950), and lrish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). Yeats also cofounded a dining and poetry club, the Rhymers' Club, in London with Welsh-English writer Ernest Rhys, (1859-1946). Through Yeats's literary circle, he met and fell in love with Maud Gone (1866-1953), an actress and ardent Irish Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. nationalist. Yeats pursued Gone relentlessly, proposing marriage many times, which she always refused. Instead, Gonne married a fellow revolutionary, Major John MacBride. Yeats wrote plays in which Gone would star and even dedicated his 1892 play The Countess Cathleen to her. Gonne's marriage was stormy and violent, which broke Yeats's heart. He immortalizes Major MacBride as a “drunken, vainglorious lout" who has “done most bitter wrong / To some who are near my heart” in his poem “Easter, 1916,"which was published the same year. Inspiration Many sources inspired Yeats's writings, most notably mythology, the supernatural, and Irish history. Yeats became a ‘member of the Order of the Golden Dawn in 1890, an organization focused on the study and practice of mysticism and the occult In 1917, when Yeats married Georgie Hyde-Lees (1892-1968), who was also a member of the Golden Dawn, they practiced automatic writing together, in which Hyde-Lees wrote down words and messages "received" from spirits from a supernatural realm. Yeats later gathered these automatic \ritings in his book A Vision (1925). The ideas and symbols ‘generated by these episodes of automatic writing had a profound effect on Yeats's work after 1917, in particular on the poet's sense of history as a recurring cycle of events, especially in poems such as "Sailing to Byzantium’ (1928) and "The Second Coming’ (1920), Yeats was deeply enmeshed in the Irish nationalist movement, partly as a consequence of his complex relationship with Maud Gonne. He was a primary founder of the Irish National Theatre Society, which soon opened the Abbey Theatre in Dublin to promote native Irish drama. Yeats quickly became closely identified with Ireland, as the majority of his works featured lrish characters and landscapes or were based on traditional Irish songs or tales. He wrote many nationalistic plays during his tenure at the Irish National Theatre Society, including the play Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), which he wrote with his patron, Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852-1932). Cathleen ni Houlihan featured Gone as a personification of Ireland itset. Despite his nationalism, he was not overtly politica, though this changed after the Easter Rebellion of 1916. When “Easter, 1916" was published, the public, as well as most critics, saw it, as nothing short of a glowing tribute to the executed rebels Maud Gone, however, recognized Yeats's ambiguity about the ‘The Lake Isla of Innisfree Study Guide Plot Summary 4 necessity of the uprising, chastising the poem in aletter to Yeats: "No I don't lke your poem,” she wrote, “isn't worthy of you and above all it isn't worthy of the subject." Death and Legacy After Ireland gained independence from England, Yeats was appointed senator of the Irish Free State in 1922, which further ‘cemented his position as a cultural leader. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, which Yeats characterized as a public recognition of Irish culture. Yeats continued to write politically influenced poetry until his death on January 28, 1989, at age 73. He was heralded as the national poet of Ireland and has also been called one of the greatest, if not the greatest, English-speaking poet of the 20th century. Citing Yeats for inventing the modern lyric poem, which incorporates robust rhythms with rich historical and mythological symbols, critic, James Longenbach told the BBC, "Yeats matters today in the ‘way that [English playwright Wiliam] Shakespeare or (English playwright Ben] Jonson or [American poet Emily] Dickinson matter." \ Plot Summary Stanza 1 ‘The speaker declares that he will get up and go at this moment to a place called Innisfree, where he will build a small cabin made of "clay and wattles,” or simple materials. He wishes to ‘grow nine rows of beans and keep a hive for honeybees. He ‘wants to live alone, hearing the sounds of the bees in the glade. Stanza 2 At Innisfree, where the speaker plans to build his cabin and live, he expects to feel "some peace” because of the close proximity to the natural world. He will hear crickets and watch the day pass into night, with evening “ull ofthe linnet's wings." Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. Stanza 3 The speaker repeats his declaration that he wil “arise now and 190" to Innisfree because he is constantly reminded of the ‘sound of “lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore." It is revealed that the speaker currently lives in an urban environment with "pavements grey." Yet he stil hears and feels called to return to lnnistree for the peace it provides. ©. Plot Analysis Structure and Meter "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is composed of three quatrains—a dquatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines. Each quatrain moves the poem in a different direction. Stanza 1 provides the physical details of what the speaker intends to do. He will 90 and build a small cabin with nine rows of beans and a beehive, and he wil ve alone “in the bee-loud glade." The second stanza introduces feelings the speaker expects to feel after he ‘goes—he “shall have some peace there'—and describes how this peace will come ‘dropping slow’ throughout the day and night. Finally, in Stanza 3 the speaker repeats his declaration to "arise and go now." But in this stanza he provides what has ‘motivated this sudden action. “Night and day” he hears the ‘sound of the "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore” despite the actuality that he is in a city. In fact, he hears the ‘sound not in his memory but “in the deep heart's core” Yeats Uses these three quatrains to move the reader from an image toa feeling to a motivation Each quatrain has a rhyme scheme of abab and contains three longer lines with a final shorter line that provides a sense of symmetry. The poem's stresses follow an iambic pattern, where each beat has a short unstressed syllable followed by a longer stressed syllable I shifts from hexameter (six stresses per line) to tetrameter (four iambs per line) in the last line of each quatrain. This creates a sense of completion and an tending emphasis within each quatrain. The rhythmic structure of the repetition of the rhyming and stress pattern mimics the rhythm of ‘lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.” ‘The stress pattern of the poem also reflects the rhythm of a heartbeat, which may be referenced in the final stanza of the poem. That is when the speaker claims to hear the lake water ‘The Lake Isla of Innisfree Study Guide Plot Analysis 5 lapping "in the deep heart's core." Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, and Anaphora Yeats's use of alliteration, assonance, and consonance throughout the poem is deft and deliberate, creating at times an almost musical quality to the lines. Alteration is the repetition of sounds at the beginning of nearby words. Yeats uses heavy alliteration in Stanza 1 with the line, "Nine bean rows will have there, a hive for the honeybee." The next line creates consonance with a new sound, "And lve alone in the bee-loud glade.” Consonance is the repetition of consonant ‘sounds in adjacent words. The repetitive sounds in these first {wo lines create a mesmerizing and hypnotic tone. There is just ‘enough difference in the vowel sounds of have, hive, and honey to cause an effective tension that slows the reader down and also creates a sense of peace. ‘The resemblance of vowel sounds is assonance. Stanza 2 uses ‘assonance in the line "And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow” and assonance and consonance in “There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow." The effect continues to slow the reader down and enables them to ‘experience the visual and auditory sensation the speaker is providing. In Stanza 3s line “| hear lake water lapping with the low sounds by the shore,” Yeats uses alliteration to create a rhythmic, musical effect. The effect is complicated enough that it strikes the reader's ear musically rather than with a heavy hand Yeats also uses a great deal of repetition in general and ‘anaphora, which is the repetition of phrases at the beginning of lines, throughout the poem to create a hypnotic, daydreaming, land resolute effect. He repeats the phrase "I will arise and go now’ at the beginning and ending of the poem as a sort of cllipsis, dectaring and emphasizing hs resolution. He repeats the word go more than once, an action at odds with where the ‘speaker actually is and the nonaction he is currently taking. He also repeats the word there in reference to Innisfree, ‘emphasizing his idealization of it as a place. He repeats the ‘word peace, which reiterates the feeling he is searching for. Lastly, the speaker “hears the “lake water lapping,” a sound he hears ‘in the deep heart's core." Hearing is repeated as away to emphasize that an auditory sense provides the speaker's ticket to conjuring up Innisfree. Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. Imagery and Tone Yeats packs a great deal of imagery and emotion into a 12-tine poem. Since the first stanza dwells in physical details, the speaker paints a picture of where he plans to go and what he will do there. The declaration of "| will emphasizes a resolute tone rather than a dreamy one. It's not a wish the speaker describes but a clear intention as though he sees no other option for himsetf it he wants to feel peace. The imagery is largely visual in the first stanza, describing a cabin built “of clay and wattles,* precisely nine rows of beans, and a beehive. Wattles are rods mixed with sticks, which are used to create walls. Yeats also introduces another piece of sensory information to the reader, that of "the bee-loud glade" where the speaker plans to live alone. The contrast of the sound of buzzing bees with a person being alone creates a striking sensory image for the reader. It also helps to create the poem's first contrasting tone. The final two lines of the poem provide an indication of the speaker's time and place. The speaker isin the present ‘moment and in an urban environment. This surprise ending causes readers to reconsider the context of the previous lines they've read. They are now colored with the knowledge that the speaker wishes to escape the "pavements grey." He wants toreturn to something simpler and more essential—his current situation is a counterpoint to the peace he is seeking at Innisfree. This competing imagery of urban versus the evocative natural imagery provided earlier creates tension in the poem and reinforces a tone of nostalgia and yearning, ‘As Stanza 2 introduces emotions into the poem, it begins to shift the tone with the word peace, which appears twice. The reader now understands that the speaker's desire to be alone is to seek this sense of peace, a sense he apparently cannot find in his current situation, The introduction of peace creates the poem's next contrast, or tension, since it implies the speaker does not feel in his current setting and state. Despite the tranquil imagery being presented in this stanza, Yeats continues to reinforce a tension that will pay off in the third stanza when itis revealed where the speaker currently resides. The imagery of "peace comes dropping slow" also hints that for the speaker, lfeis not currently made up of slowness, which he sees as the key to the peace he will ind. This is another contrast that emphasizes a tense or unsatisfied tone. ‘The Lake Isla of Innisfree Study Guide Plot Analysis 6 More auditory and visual imagery is provided, from crickets singing to the ‘purple glow’ of noon “and evening full of the. linnet's wings." (A linnet is a small gray and brown bird with a red breast) Finally, in Stanza 3 the speaker repeats his resolution with determination as though imagining what he will find there has only strengthened his resolve. Yeats provides more auditory imagery in the sensation of the speaker hearing “lake water lapping” A final tension reveals that the speaker is, currently in a place that is nearly the opposite of Innisfree—standing on a roadway with ‘pavements grey." By revealing that the speaker hears the sound of the lake in "the. deep heart's core," Yeats ends on an emotional tone that ‘emphasizes the speaker's feelings for and connection to Innisfree. It also shows how disconnected he feels from his current urban environment. The speaker repeats the resolution that he will goto Innisfree. However, at the end of the poem he is stil in the same place, which creates an underlying tone of sadness to the poem. Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. ‘The Lake Isle of Inisfree Study Guide Quotes 7 « Quotes "| will arise and go now." = Narrator ‘The speaker begins the poem with a sudden declaration as ‘though a critical decision has been made. It implies that the ‘speaker has been sitting and, perhaps, thinking about some decision and has arrived at a sudden conclusion to "arise" and leave immediately. Although the reader doesn't know the origin of hs plans, there is a sense that the speaker feels strongly ‘compelled to make a change in circumstances. Itis also possible, given Yeats's knowledge of Celtic mythology, that the ‘speaker has been compelled by the supernatural elements of the Irish landscape. "And go to Innisfree." = Narrator ‘The second half ofthe first line repeats the word go as though the speaker is emphasizing to himself the action he plans to take, and he adds a destination—Innistree. Innisfree is an island ‘surrounded by a lake in rural ireland, and readers who know the location would know the setting is a peaceful one. However, the speaker's reasons for wanting to go there remain ‘a mystery, posing a new question that encourages the reader to keep going. "And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made.” = Narrator This ine continues with the specificity of what the speaker plans to do in Innisfree, which begins to answer the question of ‘why he wants to go there. It seems significant that the speaker ‘wants to build a "small" cabin, rather than any other kind of place, and that the materials he wants to build with are simple Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. materials, ‘clay and wattles.* This imagery adds to the peaceful, simple, and rural associations the reader might have about Innisfree and why the speaker is drawn there. "Nine bean-rows will | have there, a hive for the honey-bee." = Narrator This line gets even more precise about the speaker's plans for lite at Innisfree. By being so precise, it's clear to the reader that the speaker has thought about these plans before and that they are rooted in the natural world—he plans to live off the land and to lve alone. This line also introduces the word there, ‘a word that will be repeated throughout the poem, almost as a ‘mantra that is the opposite of “here” for the speaker. Beekeeping and planting also connote farming, which, for Yeats and Henry David Thoreau (1817-62), who inspired Yeats, signifies turning away from the mechanized world and working the land as a means to be in touch with nature for the higher purpose of seeking wisdom. "And live alone in the bee-loud glade." = Narrator This line introduce the auditory imagery of "the bee-loud lade," which begins to flesh out the sensory world of Innisfree. While the poem thus far has been very concrete and visual, the speaker introduces a new sense for the reader, building out the imagery both in his mind and for his audience. The fact that the speaker wishes to live alone lends itself to the sense of simplicity he's described in building a small house with just enough to live on [At the same time, those otherwise natural sounds hint at the supernatural underpinnings of Innisfree, a landscape that was, literary critic C. Stuart Hunter notes, linked in Yeats's mind with a Celtic past ‘The Lake Isle of Inisfree Study Guide Quotes & "And | shall have some peace there.” = Narrator ‘The first half of the first ine in Stanza 2 introduces the emotion the speaker is seeking and what underiies his desire to go to Innisfree—peace. It suggests that in his current situation, the ‘speaker is not feeling peaceful. This line also contains the ‘second use of the word there, emphasizing that this is a fantasy about a place far from where the speaker currently is. "For peace comes dropping slow." = Narrator Inthis line the speaker repeats the word peace, emphasizing that this is a feeling he is seeking, and the repetition hints that itis not a feeling he currently has. The phrase "comes dropping slow’ hints that he is not ina place where things move slowly ‘and that peace is slow to come where he currently is—and the phrase also suggests Innisfree has a dreamy, peaceful quality ‘This phrase also builds upon the simplicity of the fantasy he is describing about lfe at Innisfree—alone, in a small cabin, in a quiet place, "Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings." = Narrator Here the speaker repeats the word dropping, yet he answers, the question of where the "peace" drops from—"the veils of the morning.” This imagery is decidedly more abstract and

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