The Lake Isle of Innisfree : Key info
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