Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 41 views

    Innisfree - 5th Years - OL

    Uploaded by

    Mairead Kelly
    William Butler Yeats wrote "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" while living in London and feeling dreary. In the poem, he dreams of leaving city life behind to build a small cabin on Innisfree, an island in a lake in Ireland. He describes the peaceful sounds of bees, birds, and lake water that he imagines would surround him there, bringing him calm. The poem expresses Yeats' longing to escape reality for an idealized pastoral life in nature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Innisfree - 5th Years - OL

    Uploaded by

    Mairead Kelly
    41 views11 pages
    William Butler Yeats wrote "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" while living in London and feeling dreary. In the poem, he dreams of leaving city life behind to build a small cabin on Innisfree, an island in a lake in Ireland. He describes the peaceful sounds of bees, birds, and lake water that he imagines would surround him there, bringing him calm. The poem expresses Yeats' longing to escape reality for an idealized pastoral life in nature.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    Innisfree - 5th years - OL

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    William Butler Yeats wrote "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" while living in London and feeling dreary. In the poem, he dreams of leaving city life behind to build a small cabin on Innisfree, an island in a lake in Ireland. He describes the peaceful sounds of bees, birds, and lake water that he imagines would surround him there, bringing him calm. The poem expresses Yeats' longing to escape reality for an idealized pastoral life in nature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    41 views11 pages

    Innisfree - 5th Years - OL

    Uploaded by

    Mairead Kelly
    William Butler Yeats wrote "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" while living in London and feeling dreary. In the poem, he dreams of leaving city life behind to build a small cabin on Innisfree, an island in a lake in Ireland. He describes the peaceful sounds of bees, birds, and lake water that he imagines would surround him there, bringing him calm. The poem expresses Yeats' longing to escape reality for an idealized pastoral life in nature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 11

    William Butler Yeats

    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..

    This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC


    First listening of
    poem
    Task 1
    Close your eyes and listen to the poem by
    clicking the link below.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ues
    qFe13r0

    Draw what comes to mind what you listen


    to the poem / Describe the scene and
    the sounds you hear / Imagine you are
    there.
    Task 2

    Answer the Questions below in your copies

    1. What is your impression of Innisfree based on


    the description in the poem?
    2. Choose 2 images in this poem that appeal to
    the senses (sight/sound/smell etc..) Explain
    your choices.
    3. What is the mood in this poem? (Atmosphere
    – e.g. nostalgic, calm, peaceful, unhappy etc…)

    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

    • Can you identify any


    poetic techniques the poet
    may have used? Write down
    examples in your copies.
    Commentary
    The poet is in the city – ‘on the
    pavements grey’ – and declares
    that he will leave it and go and
    live a simple life alone in a
    cabin on the Isle of Innisfree.

    He describes the peaceful


    life he imagines for
    himself there, and tells
    us, in stanza 3, that he is
    always drawn to the idea
    of this place.
    *Pastoral – (Usually related to
    animals, in literature it refers to the Themes
    perfect countryside life.

    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.

    There is an almost dreamlike quality to the description. Though the poem


    describes retreating to the countryside in traditional pastoral terms (‘small’
    cabin made of ‘wattle and daub’, beans, bees & crickets), we are also given
    impressions, not clear images: ‘’midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow’.
    Form / Rhythm
    • Poem written in four-line stanzas.

    • Rhyming scheme – abab.

    • 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.

    Alliteration: is the repetition of consonants with a similar sound.


    ‘a hive for the honey-bee’.

    End-rhyme: When rhyme occurs in the last syllables


    The rhyme pattern is ABAB
    The regular pattern adds to the atmosphere of harmony which emerges through the poem.
    These sounds create a strong rhythm and almost mesmeric effect as if the poet is in a dream-like
    state.

    You might also like