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The Lake Isle of Innisfree : Key info

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The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a notable literary work by William Butler Yeats. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

Key info

Key Facts

  • Full Title: The Lake Isle of Innisfree
  • Author: William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
  • Title of the Author: The Last Romantic Poet & Irish National Poet
  • Prize: Nobel Prize (1923)
  • Source: Inspired by Yeats’s childhood visits to County Sligo and the natural beauty of Lough Gill and Innisfree Island
  • Written Time: 1888 (in London, during a moment of homesickness)
  • First Published: 1890 (in The National Observer), later included in The Rose (1893)
  • Publisher: The National Observer (initial publication); later, collected by Macmillan in The Rose
  • Genre: Lyrical Poem
  • Form: Twelve-line lyric divided into three quatrains (4-line stanzas)
  • Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF
  • Tone: Dreamy, Meditative, Reflective, Tranquil
  • Point of View: First-Person (the speaker is Yeats himself or a poetic persona)
  • Climax: The speaker contrasts the noisy urban life with the peaceful dream of Innisfree
  • Significance: A symbol of inner peace, spiritual retreat, and the poet’s yearning for harmony with nature; a bridge between Romanticism and early Modernism
  • Setting:
  • Time Setting: Timeless; reflects an eternal hope
  • Place Setting: Innisfree — a small uninhabited island in Lough Gill, County Sligo, Ireland

 

Key Notes

  • Symbolic Island – Innisfree: “Innisfree” is not just an island; it is an ideal place of peace for the poet, where one can become one with nature. It is a symbol of his dream world and spiritual freedom.
  • Autobiographical Element: This poem carries an autobiographical touch. While sitting in London, the poet remembers the Isle of Innisfree in Sligo from his childhood. This island was a peaceful memory of his early days. So, the poem is inspired by his personal experiences and emotions.
  1. B. Yeats’s poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” was written in the socio-personal context of late 19th-century Ireland and England. During this time, due to the Industrial Revolution in Europe, city life had become noisy and mechanical, and people were gradually becoming detached from nature. Yeats was living in London then, a busy and artificial urban life. One day, while looking at a small fountain displayed in a shop window, he suddenly remembered a natural place full of childhood memories—Sligo’s Isle of Innisfree. The peace of that natural place, the sound of birds, the lapping of water, and the solitude offered a kind of mental peace that was missing in the city’s chaos.

In this poem, Yeats expresses a deep desire of his heart—he wants to leave behind the artificiality of city life and live a meditative, peaceful life close to nature. Innisfree is not just a real island for him, but a symbolic and ideal place where the soul finds freedom and the mind finds calm. The poem is also autobiographical, as it springs from the poet’s real memories and emotions. It also reflects the deep love for nature that many poets of the time had.

Moreover, the poem stands at the junction of Romantic and Modern poetry. On one hand, it follows the tradition of nature-loving poets like Wordsworth, and on the other, it reflects the modern man’s isolation and inner conflict. The poet shows how the peace and purity of nature have become rare in today’s fast-paced urban life. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” is therefore not just a nature poem — it is a yearning for spiritual freedom, where a person wants to rediscover themselves in the lap of nature. Even today, the poem stands as a symbol of a dreamland for modern readers — a place they long to return to, in search of peace far from the noise.