05. CE 201 - The Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats

Описание:    • HPU 2nd Year English Compulsory Course  
William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Celebrated Irish poet, dramatist, editor and activist from London -- won Nobel in 1923.
Though he grew up in London, Yeats remained connected to his Irish roots. He was an ardent supporter of Irish Nationalism and an icon of the Irish literary movement -- collecting, translating and publishing Irish legends and folk tales. He also developed a strong interest in magic and mysticism.
Yeats saw a poem as a complex interaction of images, rhythms and sounds which together become a symbol for the emotional experience otherwise difficult to capture in ordinary language.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1892)
Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's Walden, which Yeats' father used to read to him as a child.
The poem may be seen as part of the pastoral tradition, wherein the peaceful and natural rhythms of rural life are compared to the dull, superficial corruption and noise of urban life.
However, in the present poem, Yeats simply describes nostalgic pastoral imagery, leaving the negativities of city life as an implied contrast.
Thus, the poet expresses a deep lyrical desire to escape the grey pavements and roadways of the city -- to the simple life and setting of the lake isle of Innisfree, of which he had fond childhood memories.

Questions to ponder:
The poet may be an escapist, but is he also a coward? But why run the rat race if you don't even care for the prize? Living in a city makes sense if you have responsibilities there, or you wish to acquire money, fame or have the pleasures of society and culture -- but what if someone just wants to live in a cabin and grow beans and make honey? Why should he endure the pollution and corruption of city life? And why must then he be called a coward for doing what he wants?


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