top of page

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

St. Patrick’s Day 2024



The Lake Isle of Innisfree

by William Butler Yeats


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.

bottom of page