THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

By- W.B. Yeats

LITERARY DEVICES

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at close intervals. The repetition may be at the beginning of successive words (initial alliteration) and within words (internal alliteration). Alliteration makes a poem lyrical.

Examples:

• a hive for the honeybee

(here ‘h’ sound is repeatedly used)

• the lake water lapping with low sounds

 (here ‘I’ and ‘w’ sounds are repeated)

Metaphor

The metaphor is a figure of speech in which two, unlike objects, are compared by identification or by substitution of one by another. It differs from a simile as in it, the words of comparison ‘as’ or ‘like’ are not used.

Example:

• veils of the morning

It is a metaphor for the clouds in the morning sky or maybe the fog of the early morning or mist, or maybe even the dew on the morning grass. These could all appear like veils that are lifted once the sun rises.

Personification

A poetic device in which human traits are attributed to something abstract or non-living.

Example:

• the veils of the morning

Here morning is personified as a woman whose face is covered by a veil. The fog, mist or dew drops in the morning atmosphere form the ‘veil’.

Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of an identical word or a group of words in successive verses. Poets often repeat single words or phrases, lines, and sometimes, even whole stanzas at intervals to create a musical effect; to emphasize a point; to draw the readers’ attention or to lend unity to a piece.

Examples:

• And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning…

Here the words ‘peace’ and ‘dropping’ are repeated. ‘Peace’ emphasizes the calmness and ‘dropping’ stresses the easy pace of things in nature which is in contrast to the rush and humdrum of city life.

• I will arise and go now

 The expression has been used twice in the poem, once in the first stanza and then again in the last stanza. The repetition, apart from giving a smooth flow to the poem, brings out the poet’s decisiveness. He is clear in his mind that he would definitely get up and leave for Innisfree.

RHYME SCHEME

The poem consists of 12 lines, separated into 3 quatrains, and an abab cdcd efef rhyme scheme. Another way to arrange the rhyme can be abab for each stanza.