Poems by Yeats 1 (2/27/09)

Poem: The Lake Isle of Innisfree (24)
Passage:
"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,"


The poem is Yeats' way to voice his desire to escape. The poetic connotations that are associated with the speaker's desire to escape are normally because the speaker has had an epiphany of some sort, or that the speaker has seen society to be rotten; Yeats, as he portrays with soft and subtle diction, expresses a desire to escape so he can possess "some peace". He mentions, in the first stanza, that he will "arise and go now", which means that he is not only declaring his departure, but also that he is arising from the situation, that he is arising to achieve peace. He the mentions that he will build a "small cabin" of "clay and wattles made", and "Nine bean rows". His point, essentially, is that he wishes to live by himself, but of the land. Yeats says, finally, that he will have a "a hive for the honey bee, And live alone in bee loud glade." All that he mention, the honey bee included, are ways for him to live off the land. The honey bee, however, is emphasized by the last line "live alone in bee loud glade"; Yeats is insinuating, through metaphor, like the honey bee, he wishes to make his own honey to live off of. All of the following sets up the above passage. In the above passage, Yeats mentions that peace "comes dropping slow", which is, clearly, a way to describe honey. This is relevant because of all the ways Yeats plans to live alone, the honey bee is the only living animal (earthen house, crops, etc. were all things for him that were imperative to live off). Although Yeats is alone, he makes note that he is "alone in bee-loud glade", and in doing so is achieve the peace that "drops slowly". Yeats mentions morning, noon, and midnight: all parts of the day. He starts by mentioning the peace drops "from the veils of morning", by putting morning first (syntax), Yeats emphasizes that peace, like everything else in the world, begins with morning. It then says that, "there" (Innisfree) "midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow". In the same line, Yeats notes the brightest party of the day (noon), and the darkest (mid night) (juxtaposition). Midnight, when the night is at its darkest, there is usually a "dark" connotation (for example, in many works by Joyce, he uses dusk, and darkness to set the tone, or to convey a motif), however, Yeats balks the negative connotations by characterizing darkness as "a glimmer". He then says that noon is a "purple glow". The image is softening, which is emphasized by word choice of "glow" and the color "purple". In Innisfree, Yeats has found peace, and not even the darkest of the night is something to fear.

What the reader notices first is that the first line is speaking in the future tense. The poem starts, "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree". By using the future tense, Yeats suggests to the reader the situation or state in which the poem is written is one of sadness, because he's leaving the state he is currently in, to go to Innisfree. Yeats repeats "peace" and "dropping" in the passage above. By repeating "peace" he is bringing the attention to the reader the core of the poem, being Yeats' pursuit of peace. He then personofies "peace" with the verb "dropping". Mentioned before, the honey motif is used to characterize peace. It is a metaphor that infers that Yeats, like honey bees, will create his "peace" (as they create their honey (that drops slowing)) in Innisfree. The repetition is also used to slow the reader down, and to literally have the reader feel the "peace" that "drops slowly".