Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process is a collection of essays in which many acclaimed authors and poets muse about a piece of writing that inspires them. In his essay poet Billy Collins expounds on the pleasures of memorizing poetry and discusses the meaning and structure of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats. I think you’ll agree with him that “[t]he language is gorgeous — it has a beautiful, rhythmic, almost hypnotic spell.”
The Poem
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.
Context
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” was inspired by the island where Yeats spent his childhood summers. Feeling homesick while living in London, he was reminded of the lake by a fountain in a shop window. This poem was the result.
Publication
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” was published in a British newspaper called The National Observer in 1890 and in a collection of Yeats’ poetry two years later. In 1932 it appeared as an illustrated broadside published by Cuala Press, a private press set up by Yeats’ sister, Elizabeth Yeats.
Recording
It was from Billy Collins that I learned of the existence of a recording of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” read by Yeats himself. Collins calls his style of reading it “incantatory” and “singing.”
Musical Settings
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” has been set to music by several composers, including Richard Bunger Evans (1995), Ben Moore (2001), and Ola Gjeilo (2016?). Have a listen, if you’d like.