The Lake Isle of Innisfree / W.B. Yeats

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.

~~
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), 1888
from The Countess Kathleen, 1892

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

W.B. Yeats biography
Notes on The Lake Isle of Innisfree

"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (music by Brian Dunning & Jeff Johnson). Courtesy Jeff Johnson.