poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
comprising three
quatrains
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gree ...
, written by
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
Cuala Press
The Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century. Originally Dun Emer Press, from 1908 u ...
Broadside in 1932.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" exemplifies the style of the
Celtic Revival
The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gael ...
: it is an attempt to create a form of poetry that was Irish in origin rather than one that adhered to the standards set by English poets and critics. It received critical acclaim in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. The poem is featured in
Irish passport
An Irish passport ( ga, Pas Éireannach) is the passport issued to citizens of Ireland. An Irish passport enables the bearer to travel internationally and serves as evidence of Irish nationality and citizenship of the European Union. It also f ...
s.
Background
Lake Isle of Innisfree is an uninhabited island within
Lough Gill
Lough Gill () is a freshwater lough (lake) mainly situated in County Sligo, but partly in County Leitrim, in Ireland. Lough Gill provides the setting for William Butler Yeats' poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree".
Location and environment
Lough ...
, in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, near which Yeats spent his summers as a child. Yeats describes the inspiration for the poem coming from a "sudden" memory of his childhood while walking down Fleet Street in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1888. He writes, "I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my teens, of living in imitation of
Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...
on Innisfree, a little island in Lough Gill, and when walking through Fleet Street very homesick I heard a little tinkle of water and saw a fountain in a shop-window which balanced a little ball upon its jet, and began to remember lake water. From the sudden remembrance came my poem "Innisfree," my first lyric with anything in its rhythm of my own music. I had begun to loosen rhythm as an escape from rhetoric and from that emotion of the crowd that rhetoric brings, but I only understood vaguely and occasionally that I must for my special purpose use nothing but the common syntax. A couple of years later I could not have written that first line with its conventional archaism—"Arise and go"—nor the inversion of the last stanza."
Analysis
The twelve-line poem is divided into three quatrains and is an example of Yeats's earlier lyric poems. The poem expresses the speaker's longing for the peace and tranquility of Innisfree while residing in an urban setting. He can escape the noise of the city and be lulled by the "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore." On this small island, he can return to nature by growing beans and having bee hives, by enjoying the "purple glow" of heather at noon, the sounds of birds' wings, and, of course, the bees. He can even build a cabin and stay on the island much as Thoreau, the American Transcendentalist, lived at
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
Pond. During Yeats's lifetime it was—to his annoyance—one of his most popular poems, and on one occasion was recited (or sung) in his honor by two (or ten—accounts vary) thousand Boy Scouts. The first quatrain speaks to the needs of the body (food and shelter); the second to the needs of the spirit (peace); the final quatrain is the meeting of the inner life (memory) with the physical world (pavement grey).
Musical settings
* Muriel Herbert set the poem in 1928.
*Seattle, WA band
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), ...
mentions the Isles of Innisfree in many other songs including "The Shrine/An Argument", "Isles" and "Bedouin Dress".
*American composer Ben Moore has also composed a setting of the poem.
*Another musical setting is featured in ''Branduardi canta Yeats'' (published by Edizioni Musicali Musiza, 1986), composed and played by
Angelo Branduardi
Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.
Biography
Branduardi wa ...
on translation of Luisa Zappa.
*
Michael McGlynn
Michael McGlynn (born 11 May 1964) is an Irish composer, producer, director, and founder of the vocal ensemble Anúna.
Career
McGlynn was born in Dublin and attended Coláiste na Rinne and Blackrock College. He was a student of Music and Eng ...
of the Irish group
Anúna
Anúna (stylized in all caps) is a vocal ensemble formed in Ireland in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne. Taking the current name in 1991,Allmusic Biography/ref> the group has recorded 18 albums and achieved a ...
arranged this as a choral piece: a recording of it is featured on Anúna's album ''Invocation''.
*Composer and pianist
Ola Gjeilo
Ola Gjeilo ( , ; born May 5, 1978) is a Norwegian composer and pianist, living in the United States.The Lake Isle "
*Popular settings of the poem have been done by Judy Collins and the Dream Brothers.
*Australian musician Paul Kelly performs a version on his 2013 album ''Conversations with Ghosts''.
*
Shusha Guppy
Shushā Guppy ( fa, شوشا گوپی; née Shamsi Assār ( fa, شمسی عصار; 24 December 1935 – 21 March 2008) was a writer, editor and a singer of Persian and Western folk songs. She lived in London from the early 1960s, until her death ...
recorded an unaccompanied version on her album ''This is the Day'' (United Artist Records, 1974).
*"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is part of the song cycle ''5 Songs on Poems by W. B. Yeats'' composed by the Dutch composer Carolien Devilee.
*A musical setting of this poem is featured in ''DUBLIN 1916, An Irish Oratorio'' and ''YEATS SONGS'', a song cycle, both composed by Richard B. Evans (published by Seacastle Music Company, 1995).
*A choral setting for treble voices by Canadian composer
Eleanor Joanne Daley
Eleanor Joanne Daley (born April 21, 1955) is a Canadian composer of choral and church music, a church choir director, choral clinician and accompanist. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Among her best-known works are ''The Rose Trilo ...
published by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
*The text was set to a choral piece for
SATB
SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass.
Choral music
Four-part harm ...
and hammered dulcimer, composed by Shawn Kirchner and published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
''
Fringe
Fringe may refer to:
Arts
* Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe"
* Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival
* Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre
* The Fringe, the ...
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the '' Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, th ...
) narrates the first stanza of the poem, alluding to his plans of collapsing the two universes into a new world where he plays God.
*In the film '' Million Dollar Baby, ''directed by Clint Eastwood, Frankie Dunn (portrayed by Eastwood) reads the first two quatrains to Margaret Fitzgerald (
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first became known in 1992 for her role on the television series '' Camp Wilder'' and made her film debut with a minor role in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992 ...
) at the hospital after a fight where her neck has broken.
*In the climactic scene from the film '' Three And Out'', Tommy recites the poem just before he gets hit by the train.
*John Ford's Academy Award winning film ''
The Quiet Man
''The Quiet Man'' is a 1952 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Victor McLaglen. The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 ''Saturday Ev ...
'' (1952) is set in "Inisfree" and clearly takes Yeats's poem as one of its principal subtexts.
*Hard rock band
Sir Lord Baltimore
Sir Lord Baltimore was an American heavy metal band from Brooklyn, New York City, formed in 1968 by lead vocalist and drummer John Garner, guitarist Louis Dambra, and bassist Gary Justin. Some have cited the 1971 review of their debut record, ...
has a song called "Lake Isle of Innersfree," presumably inspired by Yeats's poem. It appears on their 1970 LP Kingdom Come.
*In the song "The Shrine/An Argument" by Seattle indie folk band
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes is an American indie folk band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2006. The band consists of Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar), Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), ...
Innisfree is mentioned in the song's final lyric: "Carry me to Innisfree like pollen on the breeze." The band also mentions Innisfree in their song "Bedouin Dress" on the same album, saying frequently: "One day at Innisfree, one day that's mine there" and "Just to be at Innisfree again".
*In the song "
Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
' Grave" by Irish band
The Cranberries
The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland. Originally named the Cranberry Saw Us, the band were formed in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler. Quinn was ...
there is a line that says "And you sit here with me, in the Isle Innisfree".
*The poem inspired Philip Gates's "The Lake Isle" for oboe and piano.
*The folksinger, songwriter, and actor
Hamilton Camp
Hamilton Camp (Born Robin S. Camp, 30 October 1934 – 2 October 2005) was a London-born actor and singer, who relocated to the United States with his family when he was a young child. He became an American folk singer during he 1960s, and ev ...
released a beautiful version called "Innisfree" on his 1964 album ''Paths of Victory'' on Elektra Records.
*Composer
Ola Gjeilo
Ola Gjeilo ( , ; born May 5, 1978) is a Norwegian composer and pianist, living in the United States.Gjeilo, Ola "The Lake Isle" Retrieved 12 October 2021.
*In his debut novel ''
Ghostwritten
''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel published by English author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, B ...
'' the British author David Mitchell quotes the first two quatrains in the chapter "London" and the last in the chapter "Clear Island."
*The third book in Nicolas Freeling's Henri Castang series is ''Lake Isle'', with explicit reference to Yeats's poem.
*
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.
His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...
closes his 1932 essay "At Thurston's" by declaring that watching a billiards match at Thurston's Hall is "as near to the Isle of Innisfree as we can get within a hundred miles of Leicester Square."
*South Korean cosmetic brand Innisfree takes its name from the poem.
*Canadian singer-songwriter
Christine Fellows
Christine Fellows (born 1968) is a Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
History
Born in Windsor, Ontario and raised in France and Kelowna, British Columbia, Fellows lived in Toronto, Vancouver, Guelph and Montreal befor ...
mentions reading Yeats to hens in the song "The Spinster's Almanac," singing "who wouldn't like to wake up on the Isle of Innisfree/ To muck about that bee-loud glade like he?"
*Scottish songwriter and musician
Jackie Leven
Jackie Leven (18 June 1950 – 14 November 2011) was a Scottish songwriter and folk musician. After starting his career as a folk musician in the late 1960s, he first found success with new wave band Doll by Doll. He later recorded as a solo ...
released an album titled ''For Peace Comes Dropping Slow'' (1997), Haunted Valley – reissued by Cooking Vinyl (2004). The title comes from the first line of the second quatrain.
*The song "Bedouin Dress" by the American indie folk band Fleet Foxes makes several references to Innisfree. Robin Pecknold, the band's lead singer/songwriter, sings in the 2nd verse: 'And believe me it's not easy when I look back / Everything I took I'd soon return / Just to be at Innisfree again / All of the sirens are driving me over the stern / Just to be at Innisfree again." Moreover, the song includes (and concludes) with the refrain, "One day at Innisfree / One day that's mine there."
List of works by William Butler Yeats
This is a list of all works by Irish poet and dramatist W. B. (William Butler) Yeats (1865–1939), winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and a major figure in 20th-century literature. Works sometimes appear twice if parts of new editions ...