The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats

"There midnight's all a glimmer"

Recently, a friend and I were talking about Thoreau's Walden.  My friend surprised me by reciting The Lake Isle of Innisfree.  The poem was very pertinent to our conversation about solitude, nature and growing one's own food.  Afterwards, I thought that if the poem is important enough for my friend to learn by heart, then it is worth taking a close look at it.  

I have included the poem at the end of this document.  You may like to read it first.

The poet tells us that he is going to make a sea-change in his life and move to the countryside.  He intends to build his own dwelling and grow his own food there.  He believes he will have peace by living close to nature; and he tells us that no matter where he is in the urban landscape, he hears nature calling him from the depths of his being.

Looking at some of the verbs in the first stanza we find arise, go, build.  Apart from their plain meanings, these words give us a sense of growth and of ascending to a better mode of being - a spiritual flourishing rather than a material one, perhaps.  And although the poet intends to construct a dwelling and practice horticulture (both, in a sense, unnatural activities), he introduces us to the raw elements of clay and wattle, of bean-rows and hives.  The final line of the stanza gives us a vivid and evocative picture of the poet's vision: And live alone in the bee-loud glade.  Gee, Dylan Thomas could not have written it any better.

In the second stanza, the poet evokes more images of the natural world.  He uses the words morning, midnight, noon and evening.  His world, he says, will be filled with the sounds of crickets singing and of birds beating their wings, and the sky will glow by day and glimmer by night.  It is from this sensuous tapestry that the poet's sought-after peace will come.  He says peace comes dropping slow, and the reader can almost see it dropping, like morning dew on a green lawn or raindrops on the receiving flower.

In the final stanza, the poet repeats the opening phrase of the poem: I will arise and go now.  But this time he tells us about his motivation rather than his intentions.  The poet is driven by a feeling that comes from his deep heart's core.  He likens it to hearing lake water lapping, and he says he hears it for always day and night.  And to heighten the reader's appreciation of what has transpired earlier in the poem, the poet introduces  the contrasting image of roadways and pavements grey.  The image is  hard and bleak and lifeless. And so the poet ends the poem with what really matters: the deep heart's core.

I enjoyed this poem, and it does make me wonder what lies calling  to me from my deep heart's core.  Accumulate appreciating and income producing capital!  Nope, that's not it.  Leave it with me, I'll work on it.  Meanwhile, here's the poem ... 

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats 

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.