The Lake Isle of Innisfree

grrlscientist — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:59:59 +0000

tags: The Lake Isle of Innisfree, William Butler Yeats, poetry, National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day, this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). Today's poem was suggested by a reader and friend.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

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 honeybee,
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 the water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

-- William Butler Yeats, Yeats's Poetry, Drama, and Prose (Norton Critical Editions) (W. W. Norton; 2000).

grrlscientist Sun, 04/06/2008 - 03:59