Innisfree - 5th Years - OL
Innisfree - 5th Years - OL
Innisfree - 5th Years - OL
Background of Poet
The Lake Isle of
Innisfree
This poem, was written by Yeats in his 20s when he was
working in London, living a dreary joyless life. He dreams of
leaving London and returning to the rural paradise of his
childhood in Innisfree..
Glossary
Innisfree: an island in Lough Gill, Co. Sligo.
Wattles: woven strips of wood
Glade: open area in a wood
Linnet: Small bird known for its trilling song
Task 3
The main theme of the poem is the desire to escape reality to an idealised
pastoral world.
This desire is clearly a reaction to how unhappy the Yeats is in London and
expresses a longing rather than possibility. It leads him to imagine the the
perfect place.
• First three lines in each stanza are longer, with caesura (midline break) in
each one, while the fourth is shorter and slower.
• The long lines with caesura have a relaxed back and forth rhythm, reminding
one of the swash and backwash of waves, like ‘lake water lapping’ in line 10.
• The shorter final lines of each stanza slow down the movement and bring it to
stillness.
Language
In part borrowed from bible – ‘I will arise and go now’ (Prodigal son).
Patterns of sound
Yeats includes several examples of interesting sound patterns in this poem:
Assonance: Type of rhyme that occurs where similar vowel sounds are repeated in a line of poetry.
‘I will arise and go now’, ‘of clay and wattles made’, ‘evening full of the linnets’ wings’.
This creates a musical, harmonious effect.