Lake Isle of Innisfree - wikipedia Lake Isle of Innisfree This article is about the poem by William Butler Yeats. For the song by Dick Farrelly, see Isle of Innisfree. 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 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. -- W.B. Yeats `` The Lake Isle of Innisfree '' is a twelve - line poem composed of three quatrains written by William Butler Yeats in 1888 and first published in the National Observer in 1890. It was reprinted in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics in 1892 and as an illustrated Cuala Press Broadside in 1932. `` The Lake Isle of Innisfree '' exemplifies the style of the Celtic Revival : 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 and France. Wikisource has original text related to this article : Lake Isle of Innisfree Contents 1 Background 2 Analysis 3 Musical settings 4 In other media 5 References 6 See also Background Photograph of William Butler Yeats taken in 1890 The Isle of Innisfree is an uninhabited island within Lough Gill, in County Sligo, Ireland, where 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 in 1888. He writes, `` I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my teens, of living in imitation of Thoreau 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. Throughout the three short quatrains the poem explores the speaker 's longing for the peace and tranquility of Innisfree while residing in an urban setting. The speaker in this poem yearns to return to the island of Innisfree because of the peace and quiet it affords. 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 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, who lived in this manner on Walden 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 & 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 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 ). Muriel Herbert set the poem in 1928. Seattle, WA band Fleet Foxes 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 on translation of Luisa Zappa. Michael McGlynn of the Irish group Anúna arranged this as a choral piece : a `` recording '' of it is featured on Anúna 's album Invocation. Composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo set this text to music in a piece called `` 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 recorded an unaccompanied version on her album ' This is the Day ' ( United Artist Records, 1974 ). ' The Lake Isle of Innisfree ' is part of the Songcylcle ' 5 Songs on Poems by W.B. Yeats ' composed by the Dutch composer Carolien Devilee. In other media Television In the finale episode of the fourth season of the Fox science - fiction drama television series Fringe entitled Brave New World ( Part 2 ), Dr. William Bell ( Leonard Nimoy ) narrates the first stanza of the poem, alluding to his plans of collapsing the two universes into a new world where he plays God. Cinema 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 ) 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 ( 1952 ) is set in Innisfree and clearly takes Yeat 's poem as one of its principal subtexts. Music In the song The Shrine / An Argument by Seattle indie folk band Fleet Foxes 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 his LP Branduardi canta Yeats ( 1986 ), Angelo Branduardi sings an italian version of this poem. The poem inspired Philip Gates 's The Lake Isle for oboe and piano. The Folk singer songwriter and actor Hamid Hamilton Camp Released a beautiful version called Innisfree on his 1964 album Paths of Victory on Electra records. Literature In his debut novel Ghostwritten the British author David Mitchell quotes the first two quatrains in the chapter `` London '' and the last in the chapter `` Clear Island. '' Essays Referred to in the final line of J.B. Priestley 's essay `` At Thurston 's '', 1932 ; writing 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 ''. References Jump up ^ Kenner, Hugh. `` The Conquest of English ''. A Colder Eye. Johns Hopkins University Press 1983 p. 51 Jump up ^ Jochum, Klaus Peter. `` The Reception of W.B. Yeats in France ''. The Reception of W.B. Yeats in Europe. Continuum 2006 p. 33 Jump up ^ Yeats, William Butler. Autobiographies. London : Macmillan 1955, p. 153 Jump up ^ R. F Foster : W.B. Yeats, A Life. Vol. 1. The apprentice Mage See also 1893 in poetry List of works by William Butler Yeats Coordinates : 54 ° 14 ′ 47 '' N 8 ° 21 ′ 28 '' W ﻿ / ﻿ 54.2465 ° N 8.3579 ° W ﻿ / 54.2465 ; - 8.3579 W.B. Yeats Poetry Volumes The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems ( 1889 ) The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics ( 1892 ) In the Seven Woods ( 1903 ) Responsibilities and Other Poems ( 1916 ) The Wild Swans at Coole ( 1919 ) Michael Robartes and the Dancer ( 1921 ) The Tower ( 1928 ) The Winding Stair and Other Poems ( 1933 ) Poems `` Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven '' `` An Irish Airman Foresees His Death '' `` Adam 's Curse '' `` Blood and the Moon '' `` The Circus Animals ' Desertion '' `` Down by the Salley Gardens '' `` A Drunken Man 's Praise of Sobriety '' `` Easter, 1916 '' `` Ego Dominus Tuus '' `` In Memory of Eva Gore - Booth and Con Markiewicz '' `` Lake Isle of Innisfree '' `` On being asked for a War Poem '' `` Politics '' `` A Prayer for My Daughter '' `` Remorse for Intemperate Speech '' `` The Rose of Battle '' `` The Rose - Tree '' `` Sailing to Byzantium '' `` September 1913 '' `` Song of the Old Mother '' `` The Fiddler of Dooney '' `` The Scholars '' `` The Second Coming '' `` The Song of the Happy Shepherd '' `` The Stolen Child '' `` Swift 's Epitaph '' `` To the Rose upon the Rood of Time '' `` The Tower '' `` Under Ben Bulben `` The Wanderings of Oisin '' `` The Wild Swans at Coole '' Plays Mosada ( 1886 ) The Land of Heart 's Desire ( 1894 ) Diarmuid and Grania ( 1901 ) Cathleen ni Houlihan ( 1902 ) On Baile 's Strand ( 1903 ) The Countess Cathleen ( 1911 ) At the Hawk 's Well ( 1916 ) The Resurrection ( 1927 ) Purgatory ( 1938 ) Other works A Vision ( 1925 ) `` The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows '' Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892 -- 1935 ( editor ) People John Butler Yeats ( father ) Susan Pollexfen ( mother ) Jack Butler Yeats ( brother ) Elizabeth Yeats ( sister ) Lily Yeats ( sister ) Maud Gonne ( lover ) Georgie Hyde - Lees ( wife ) Anne Yeats ( daughter ) Michael Yeats ( son ) Related W.B. Yeats bibliography Rhymers ' Club Dun Emer Press Cuala Press An Appointment with Mr Yeats `` Troy '' Thoor Ballylee Samhain magazine Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Isle_of_Innisfree&oldid=804806659 '' Categories : Uninhabited islands of Ireland Poetry by W.B. Yeats 1890 poems Works originally published in British newspapers Lake islands of Ireland Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015 Coordinates on Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 11 October 2017, at 08 : 08. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote about the idyllic 'isle of innisfree'
Answer: William Butler Yeats