Preview

Lake Isle of Innisfree

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1648 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lake Isle of Innisfree
Introduction:
The poem I chose was “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats, and the song I chose was “Pocket Full of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. A harmony with nature and peace is the main focus of these diverse works.
William Yeats Background Information
-Yeats had a life-long interest in mysticism and philosophy.
-An abundance of his poems included the setting of his homeland, Ireland.
-As an adult, Yeats often yearned for and desired the quiet life in Sligo. His carefree child-life experience in this serene environment inspired him to write "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."

Theme Statement
- One may often desire a simplistic way of life and aspire to reach harmony with nature in order to escape the chaos of modern society.

Summary of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”
-The speaker, which we infer to be Butler, says he is going to “Innisfree”, whichis a place in West Ireland. Yeats didn't invent it - but his creation made this setting more whimsical and made it seem immortal.
-He adventures to this magical place to build a simple, quaint cabin where he will have a bean garden and honeybee hive. -The purpose of this trip is to reach a state of peace. He is drawn to the rural area of Innisfree and wants to leave his urban environment to experience a state of serenity.

1st Stanza

1 I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
2 And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
3 Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
4 And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

-The first and second lines are basically saying how the speaker wants to go to this place of wonder “Innisfree” to live peacefully and alone in a cabin. -An image of a cabin surrounded by a bean garden and a hive for honey bee’s to roam freely is depicted in the third and fourth lines in the first stanza.

2nd Stanza

5 And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
6 Dropping from the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Frank: W B Yeats, Thanks for reminding me Rita ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ springs to mind again! The musings of a middle aged man like myself. I lost the appetite for being a poet long ago and now all I have left is nothing except the acrid taste of whisky in my mouth....…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    If Yeats’ “Easter 1916” was valued and defined by only its political context it would speak powerfully to Irish Republicans and, perhaps, advocates of liberal democracy, but its context would stifle an awareness of transience and permanence Yeats commits in the heart of his poetry. Yeats reveals his consciousness to the idea of permanence through the eulogy of remembrance at the end of Easter 1916, where the vernacular is elevated to immortality in time and history. In striking difference is the repetition of “all changed, changed utterly”, by which Yeats speaks upon his awareness of transience through change and transformation, further reinforced by the visual juxtaposition of the benign interactions of everyday life in contrast to hardened political fanaticism. The echoing of “minute by minute” depicts the containing flow of time and further defines the idea of transience. Through a soft commemoration, Yeats renders permanence by providing the participants of the Easter Uprising a static place in history, and in contrast Yeats portrays mutability through change and transformation.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Heart of Darkness

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This quote was spoken by Marlow. The quote signifies the beginning of Marlow’s story, and the pretense to his vivid recollection of his journey. Marlow is referring to his current surroundings because he is about to start his lengthy allegory. Basically, Marlow begins by telling the other sailors that every place was at one point unexplored and uninhabited.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Humanity’s ungraspable longing for a sense of permanence such for beauty, aging and love, acquires tones of both contemplation and despair such seen in The Wild Swans At Coole. This reception of despondency is portrayed in the juxtaposition by the “sore heart” of an “aging poet”, with the “brilliant creatures” whose “hearts have not grown old”. In addition to this physical pain, it is the sense of loss that signifies humanity’s desire for something that is lasting. Yeats clearly admires the nature; especially the “autumn beauty”, as he “counts” his “nineteenth” one. The water imagery throughout described as detailed observations of “brimming” and his careful observations of the swans displays his meditation and appreciation through nature, but then echoes his envy towards their beauty and apparent immortality being different to himself. Yeat’s life develops symbolically as a “woodland path”- eventually becoming metaphorically “dry” and miserable. This portrays a sense of reflection as time passes, looking back, showing that Yeats “unwearied still” holds onto his desire to love, despite already knowing it is unaquirable as it has…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yeats

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages

    William Butler Yeats’ poetry possesses strong imagery and themes of stability and change. Two of the poems, which especially highlight these elements, are The Second Coming and The Wild Swans At Coole. Within both of these poems the recurring imagery conjures creates strong elements of stability and change.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The timeless essence and the ambivalence in Yeats’ poems urge the reader’s response to relevant themes in society today. This enduring power of Yeats’ poetry, influenced by the Mystic and pagan influences is embedded within the textual integrity drawn from poetic techniques and structure when discussing relevant contextual concerns.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    W. B. Yeats Research Paper

    • 1951 Words
    • 8 Pages

    William Yeats’ love and concern for Ireland began at a young age. Although he was born in…

    • 1951 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essentially the traveler is aware of his reality of being ‘alone’ and not knowing ‘where the road goes’ and that he recognizes that the boulevard has become his ‘home’.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second stanza shows pleasant imagery of the man’s homeland where is thus both like and different from New York. His home country is full of vivid fruits as well, but he can pick up them on branches without buying from the market. “fruit trees laden by low-singing rills”, (Auditory, line2), the word “low-singing rills” invites us to imagine sweet-sounding of the canal and peaceful surrounding. The word “Dewy dawns” (line3) evokes the visual…

    • 501 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is rather difficult to comprehend out society today. We strive to define ourselves as individuals yet many times we conform to the norm in an effort to fit in. We look for the best in technology with cellphones, televisions and vehicles, sometimes forgetting to just enjoy the simplicity of nature. It is bitter sweet really, watching our world advance so quickly in technology, but with that leaving the natural world behind. Today, human connection with nature is sparse and as Richard Louv argues in “Last Child in the Woods”, this is a sad truth that continues progress in severity. Richard Louv appealed to both logos and pathos, with use of anecdotes, hypothetical examples and imagery, in a sheer effort to illustrate the separation between people and nature, explaining that while nature is just at our fingertips, we fail to pay attention to it’s purifying effect on humanity.…

    • 568 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Butler Yeats

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The central theme of Yeats poems is Ireland, its history, contemporary public life, and folklore, as well as, Celtic folklore. He came to associate poetry with religious ideas and sentiments (Yeats 2, 1). He was interested in folktales as a part of an exploration of national heritage and Celtic identity. Yeats was fascinated with reincarnation, communication with the dead, mediums, spiritualism, supernatural systems, and oriental mysticism. He changed from suggestive, beautiful lyricism to tragic bitterness. (Yeats 1, 1). His early work tended towards romantic lushness and fantasy like quality, and eventually moved on to a more modern style (Yeats 2, 1).…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, on the days were I am live more simple I feel more relaxed and less stressed. Some people, like Thoreau, wanted to get away from the beaten path because he wanted to be happy with his life. Others, like Kingsolver, understand the fact that we are using too much and live simply because they can make an impact on the Earth.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yeats makes explicit links between his political and cultural concerns. I believe that by ‘Romantic Ireland’ Yeats meant an Ireland that is not dominated by power and money. A critic wrote of Yeats that “For him ‘Romantic Ireland’ meant that large-minded attitude beyond the mere calculation of economic or political advantage that he saw in the present,” This attitude for Yeats was incarnated in his sometime Fenian mentor John O’Leary. John O’Leary (1830-1907) a dignified and well-read man represented Yeats’ vision of the ideal romantic nationalist. He was a Fenian who introduced Yeats to Irish writing in translation and also taught him that “there is no fine nationality without literature, and… the converse also, that there is no fine literature without nationality,”…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stolen Child

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The first three stanzas have strong Celtic references that lead the reader to believe that Yeats wishes for a return to more innocent and less politicized world of the past. A myth that often appears in Celtic legend is that of the faery stealing a human child and replacing it with a changeling. Yeats utilizes this myth to illustrate his desire for a return of innocence to society. When Ireland was primarily a pagan nation, before Catholicism and Protestantism, these myths were abundant. The image of a child, who has not yet come to realize the pains of the world, is "stolen" and…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ross, David A. Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats: A Literary Reference to his Life and Work. New York: Infobase, 2009. Print.…

    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays