THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
By- W.B. Yeats
Useful Expressions
- … And live alone in the bee-loud glade — The poet will live in the natural surrounding with the honey bees humming all around.
- … bee-loud glade — A green place where the honey bees hum over.
- … come dropping slow/Dropping from the veils of the morning — peace comes slowly from everywhere when morning sets in.
- … to where the cricket sings — The cricket sings happily and greets the morning.
- … evenings full of the linnet’s wings — The linnets sitting in the tree flutter and fly, they create a pleasant sound.
- … lake water lapping with low sounds — The lake water striking the shore creates a pleasant murmuring sound.
Paraphrasing
| STANZA | MEANING |
| I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin builds 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. | The poet longs for the peace and tranquillity of Innisfree. The natural beauty of the lake charms the poet greatly. He has already spent his childhood at this place. He also wishes to spend some more time here. He wants to live in the lap of nature. |
| And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; Their midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evenings full of the linnet’s wings. | The poet is fed up with the strident noise of city life. He wants to live in some natural surrounding where could enjoy the song of crickets and the peaceful atmosphere of morning, noon and midnight. Only the Lake Isle of Innisfree could provide him such gifts of nature. So, he wants to go there. |
| 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 grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core. | The poet has the desire to enjoy the music produced by lake water striking against the shore. In the natural surrounding of Innisfree, he wants to stare at the movements of nature in his heart. Perhaps, he may get relief from the noise of cities. |
