Page 199 - 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?

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?

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

4. How does the speaker personify peace?

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

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?

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