Tonight we begin a new kind of lesson: poems. The first is by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. As a young man in London, he walked past a shop window with a little fountain in it, and suddenly he remembered the lake near Sligo where he spent his childhood summers.
Learn from Songs · Poetry · B1–B2
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
W. B. Yeats’s famous poem of longing for a quiet island, read here by Yeats himself: will and shall for resolutions, poetic word order (Nine bean-rows will I have there), the present simple for what never stops (I hear lake water lapping), and the music of sounds, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
And he wrote a poem about it?
SOPHIA
A poem about going there, building a little hut and living alone in peace. And you can hear it in his own voice: he recorded it for the radio in 1932, as an old man. Listen to how he chants it, almost like a song.
MARCOS
A poem about doing nothing? I like him already.
Before you listen: the song
London, 1888
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was born in Dublin and spent much of his childhood in Sligo, in the west of Ireland, his mother’s county. He became one of the greatest poets in the English language and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
He wrote “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” in 1888, at twenty-three, when he was living in London and feeling homesick. Innisfree is a tiny uninhabited island in Lough Gill, near Sligo. The poem was published in 1890 and quickly became his most famous early poem. Later in life he said that people always expected him to begin his readings with it.
In the poem, the speaker is standing on a grey city pavement, but in his heart he hears the water of the lake. He will go there, he says, build a small cabin, grow beans, keep bees, and live alone in peace.
Everyone needs a place of peace, even if it is only in the heart.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)
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.
Words in the poem
arise: get up (old, formal)
wattles: woven sticks, used to make walls
bean-rows: lines of bean plants
hive: a home for bees
bee-loud: full of the sound of bees (Yeats’s own word)
glade: an open space in a wood
veils: thin cloths; here, morning mist
cricket: an insect that “sings” at night
glimmer: a faint, shining light
linnet: a small brown singing bird
lapping: making soft sounds against the shore
core: the centre, the deepest part
Read and listen: the island in the heart
PHILO
Read the poem, then listen to Yeats reading it. Where is the speaker really standing? What does he hear? What will he do on the island?
SOPHIA
Notice how slowly Yeats reads, like a chant. Then answer Section A.
🏝️ Listen to the song: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (W. B. Yeats, 1890), read by W. B. Yeats in 1932.Hear Yeats read it →
Will and shall for resolutions
MARCOS
I will arise and go now. I shall have some peace there.
SOPHIA
will here is not a prediction: it is a decision, a resolution. shall with I is more formal and poetic. I will arise echoes the Bible: the prodigal son says I will arise and go to my father.
Poetic word order
DEMETRIA
Normal order: I will have nine bean-rows there. Poem: Nine bean-rows will I have there. Normal: a small cabin made of clay and wattles. Poem: a small cabin, of clay and wattles made.
SOPHIA
Poets move words to the front for emphasis, or to fit the rhythm and rhyme. When the object comes first, the verb and subject can change places: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, says Wordsworth. Don’t do this in normal English!
The present simple for what never stops
PHILO
Peace comes dropping slow. Always night and day I hear lake water lapping.
SOPHIA
The present simple with always or night and day for something that happens all the time. hear + object + -ing for a sound in progress: I hear the water lapping. I heard the birds singing.
The music of sounds
MARCOS
lake water lapping with low sounds… the bee-loud glade… the deep heart’s core.
SOPHIA
Alliteration = repeating the same first sound: lake, lapping, low. Read the line aloud slowly: can you hear the water? Poems are made for the ear as well as the eye.
Sophia’s comparison: Horace’s farm and Elijah’s cave
SOPHIA
The Roman poet Horace, who died only a few years ago, wrote again and again about his little farm in the Sabine hills, far from the noise of Rome: a spring, a wood, a few fields. That was all he wanted.
PHILO
And Elijah, exhausted and afraid, ran away into the desert and lay down under a broom tree. Then he went to the mountain, and God was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in a still, small voice. Sometimes we need the quiet place to hear.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| will / shall + infinitive | resolutions, poetic future | I will arise and go now. |
| object + will + subject | poetic inversion | Nine bean-rows will I have there. |
| always / night and day + present simple | what never stops | Always night and day I hear… |
| hear + object + -ing | a sound in progress | I hear lake water lapping. |
| alliteration | repeated first sounds | lake water lapping with low sounds |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Where is the speaker really standing?
2. What will he build on the island?
3. What will he keep there?
4. What does he hear all the time?
5. How old was Yeats when he wrote the poem?
6. What reminded him of the lake?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. I arise and go now. (resolution)
8. Nine bean-rows I have there. (poetic order)
9. I hear the water by the shore. (lap)
10. night and day I hear it. (all the time)
11. A small cabin, of clay and wattles . (make)
12. I heard the birds . (sing)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “I hear the water to lap.”
14. “I will arise and go now.”
15. “Nine bean-rows will I have.” (in an everyday email)
16. “Always I hear the sea.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Read it aloud. In pairs, read the poem aloud slowly, like Yeats. Mark every repeated sound. Which line sounds most like water?
Discuss. 1. Where is your “Innisfree”, a place of peace you think about when you are busy or sad? 2. Is it good to live alone, far from people? 3. Why do so many people love this poem?
Write (80–100 words). My Innisfree. Write a short poem or paragraph about your place of peace. Begin with I will arise and go now… Use will, the present simple with always, and one example of alliteration.
Now play the gamebook: an old teacher, and a little island in the lake.Play the gamebook →