"The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
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 honey-bee;
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 evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear 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.
I found out about this poem thanks to one of my favorite bands, the Fleet Foxes; I Googled "Innisfree" because it was mentioned in their epic song "The Shrine/An Argument". I think it's a fairly simple, but enticing poem. Innisfree is clearly a paradise-like place of peace and nature, a place where the narrator could escape from all his troubles. Most of the poem is simply composed of idyllic imagery describing the serene landscape. But the last stanza is interesting - does the "deep heart's core" he mentions refer to his own heart? This would explain how he hears the lake water lapping - he's "hearing" it in his soul, as a longing feeling for a place like this.
Innisfree might not even really exist - it's not the name of any real world location, and the purple glow at noon sounds pretty fantastical. But this makes sense. People tend to imagine perfection even if it doesn't exist. I think a lot of us have some imagined place - although often in a figurative sense of the word - that we would like to come to one day. I'm not sure exactly what Yeats was saying with this poem - but I've learned a lot this summer about the hardships and strife people face in the world today, not to mention all that humans have done and are doing to damage the planet, and right now, the idea of a pristine paradise island sounds very nice to me. I'd be interested to hear any of your thoughts.
-Devon
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
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 evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear 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.
I found out about this poem thanks to one of my favorite bands, the Fleet Foxes; I Googled "Innisfree" because it was mentioned in their epic song "The Shrine/An Argument". I think it's a fairly simple, but enticing poem. Innisfree is clearly a paradise-like place of peace and nature, a place where the narrator could escape from all his troubles. Most of the poem is simply composed of idyllic imagery describing the serene landscape. But the last stanza is interesting - does the "deep heart's core" he mentions refer to his own heart? This would explain how he hears the lake water lapping - he's "hearing" it in his soul, as a longing feeling for a place like this.
Innisfree might not even really exist - it's not the name of any real world location, and the purple glow at noon sounds pretty fantastical. But this makes sense. People tend to imagine perfection even if it doesn't exist. I think a lot of us have some imagined place - although often in a figurative sense of the word - that we would like to come to one day. I'm not sure exactly what Yeats was saying with this poem - but I've learned a lot this summer about the hardships and strife people face in the world today, not to mention all that humans have done and are doing to damage the planet, and right now, the idea of a pristine paradise island sounds very nice to me. I'd be interested to hear any of your thoughts.
-Devon
I Googled Innisfree. It doesn't seem to exist (my buddy Wiki told me that, so we know it's reliable).
ReplyDeleteMoving on, I agree that the poem is primarily a fantasy get-away sort of place (I must say, I was reminded of Walden throughout this poem, which Yeats may have been referring to, particularly when he says he wants to build a cabin in the woods). The stanza, however, made me wonder if he actually wants to go to the woods, or if he just wants to relax for a bit. "I hear 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." He is standing on a "roadway" or a "pavement," meaning he has not yet built his beloved cabin--he's still in... Where did he live? London? Heh... Didn't know that. He's still in London, yet he can "hear lake water lapping" within his "heart’s core."
I think he's just looking for a place which, to him, is as serene as the image he describes--wherever that may be. I wonder if he's going as far as to say that, in his heart, this sort of serene feeling does exist in London. "Innisfree" would then be in his head.
Side note, I'm currently in Florida, and last night, at around seven or eight, I was walking along the beach after a rainstorm and the sky was purple. Like, full on violet. It was amazingly trippy. I'm not sure if "purple skies" are an occurrence in the UK, but seeing as the weather is constantly shit, they may actually get purple skies more often than we do in New York.
When I read your comment, I thought your mention of Walden was funny because I actually thought of that too when I was reading it. Later, I looked up the poem on that buddy Wiki to see what it would say (I cheated, I know), and guess what: "When Yeats was a child, his father had read to him from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau", and that was his inspiration! I think this makes you a literary comparison genius. The Wikipedia page also says that Innisfree was "uninhabited island in Lough Gill", so I guess we were wrong about it not being a real place. Nevertheless, I think your interpretation still stands; Innisfree could certainly be a metaphor for the peaceful state of mind he wanted.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the information about London's shitty weather, haha. But I'd guess the purple glow in the poem isn't a rainy sky, since that would probably be inconsistent with the picture of perfection he's describing.