Lake Isle of Innisfree

The "Lake Isle of Innisfree" is a poem written by William Butler Yeats about an island in Lough Gill. It was contained in a collection of his poetry titled "The Rose" published in 1893.

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 honeybee,
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 evenings full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the 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.

During his lifetime it was- to his annoyance- one of Yeats's most popular poems and on one occasion was recited (or sung) in his honour by two (or ten- accounts vary) thousand boy scouts R. F Foster: W. B. Yeats, A Life. Vol. 1. The apprentice Mage] .

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