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 dayI hear lake 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.
Words in this poem
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- roadway n.
- A road; especially, the part traveled by carriages.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lake Isle of Innisfree is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #38877; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. B. Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/the-lake-isle-of-innisfree.html, id L16653.
Form and metre
The Lake Isle of Innisfree is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB innisfreeA · madeB · beeA · gladeB
- 2 ABAB slowA · singsB · glowA · wingsB
- 3 ABAB dayA · shoreB · grayA · coreB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, | 13 | ··˘/········· |
| And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: | 13 | ···/˘·····/˘· |
| Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| And live alone in the bee-loud glade. | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; | 15 | /˘·····/˘···/˘· |
| There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, | 13 | ·/···/˘···/˘· |
| And evening full of the linnet's wings. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| I will arise and go now, for always night and day | 13 | ··˘/····/···· |
| I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; | 13 | ···/˘/˘······ |
| While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, | 13 | ·····/····/˘· |
| I hear it in the deep heart's core. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.