Page 100 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree”
by William Butler Yeats, pages 80-81

Vocabulary
wattles – twigs, reeds, and branches
linnet – a small bird

1. The poem is written in hexameter, with the last line of each stanza in tetrameter. How
many syllables are in each of the poem’s lines? What is its rhyme scheme?

Each line has twelve syllable (hexameter means six feet) with the last lines of each stanza
having eight (four feet). The rhyme scheme is A/B/A/B.

2. In the first two poems, Yeats attempts to describe nature through sensory details and
imagery. What does the wording of the second stanza, “veils,” “peace,” and “glow,”
suggest nature is most like?

The words chosen suggest divinity and serenity. The image is one of solitude, a death-like
experience that is, though, very much alive.

3. What could you find if you went to visit Innisfree?

According to the first stanza, you could find “a small cabin of clay and wattles,” “Nine
bean rows,” and “a hive for honey.”

4. How does the speaker personify peace?

In the second stanza, the speaker personifies peace by describing it as something that
moves slowly from the sky onto the Earth, as if it had the ability to know when and how to
move on its own.

5. Describe what you feel the speaker of this poem is trying to say in the last stanza.

Answers may vary. Example: The speaker is saying that no matter where he goes—even
when he is surrounded by pavement and roads—he still hears the sound of the water
lapping on the shore of Innisfree. It is a sound that stays in his heart, so he can hear it
wherever he goes.

6. The poem’s concluding thought, that truth is found in “the deep heart’s core,” is a theme
that resonates throughout Yeats’ poetry. What, according to the poem, is the significance of
the heart’s core?

The heart’s core contains the essential truths of life and of nature. Man’s quest to find and
unearth these truths should be his goal in life.

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