The Lake Isle of Innisfree

This is one of Yeats earliest poems (1888) and also one of his most famous.  It reflects his love of nature and is replete with spiritual references as befits Yeats interest in the supernatural.

Spoken Word

​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.

Other Versions

Mike Scott

WB Yeats

Recording Notes
Arrangement, recording, guitar and harmonica Ronan McCauley. .

This is an earlier version of the song which was used by  lady from Alabama, Sandy Machen,  as background music to her video of a beautiful collection of Irish photographs from the late 19th Century