Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

Commit Poetry: The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats

By

Innisfree

 

Wow. It’s been so long since I’ve posted here, I was automatically logged out and had to go dig up my password. I’ve been seriously tied up with other stuff and have let the blog languish–but I see my Instagram stories are still posting down there on the right, so there’s that.

Anyway, a friend of mine has been facing a challenge this week, and she memorized a poem in anticipation because she needed to store up some words. I told her I’d memorize it, too, and I did this past weekend. (I still can’t believe I memorized a whole poem in a weekend.) There’s this thing about poetry–it connects us. And I hoped memorizing and repeating this poem would be one way I could walk with my friend even though we are 1000 miles apart.

The more I read through and read aloud this poem, the more I sense its peace and tranquillity. I can almost hear the sounds of the bees and the rhythm of the waves.

 

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

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 greay,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

 

 

Have you memorized any poems lately?

Comments

  1. Sandy!!! this is prophetic for me. I can’t thank you enough for sharing it. I had heard a radio pastor ask where we can go, a place of significance, where God speaks most clearly to us. For me? Innisfree, our cozy little cabin in the woods! When we bought this little A-frame in the heart of Missouri, when Sheridan was but two, while we’d go as a little family, there were times when I went alone. Every time I drive through the gated community, as a friend of mine who owned a home there always said, I feel the weight of the world lift from my shoulders. What is there about being alone in the deep midst of God’s creation that permits Him to speak most clearly? For one, we get quiet enough to listen. I need to go there again, and am planning a get-away. You may wonder why I call my cabin Innisfree (I name our houses!) ? Michael, Sheridan, and I love watching the movie The Quiet Man for Saint Patrick’s Day. In it, Innisfree is a fictitious Irish town where Sean Thornton (John Wayne) goes to recapture the quiet life of his birth, after accidentally killing a man in America during his boxing days. (I know: spoiler alert)! He meets Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara), and they fall in love (I digress). But Wayne needed a quiet place to rebuild his broken life, and does so in Innisfree, and purchases the little cottage, which is his birth place. I knew that our Innisfree would be a retreat of quiet and peace, a refuge in storm. When discussing this name possibility with my mother, she told me about the Yates poem. I’d never read it, and when I did, my decision was made! His words describe perfectly my experience at our cabin. So we named it Innisfree, and it bears that name on a sign on a tree, a sign the woodpeckers love to read! 🙂 And at the cabin, I have a beautiful green-leather edition of Yates’s poetry, in which The Lake Isle of Innisfree is included. Admittedly, I’ve not memorized the poem, but you inspire me to try my hand at this when I go soon. I know I need the peace he describes and which the Lord promises. I hope you will recite one of your own beautiful poems soon. You are an expressive author and speaker.
    Love
    Lynn

    • Lynn… I don’t even have words for your beautiful story. I’ve never seen that movie, but now I’ll have to look for it. I’m loving imagining your cabin and the sign and the green leather book. I hope you can slip away to your Innisfree soon. And I hope if you do memorize that poem, you’ll share it. Thanks so much for your encouraging words and for lifting some of my shoulder weight today. Big hugs!

      • Yes, thank you. Going soon. Thank you Lord!! I can’t believe this touched you. You are so kind. And I hope you enjoy this movie (sorry for spoiler alert). But I was surprised women in Mike’s office found it sexist. They fail to see it was made in a different time setting, and that Sean adored Mary Kate. One just has to understand that element. Even my feminist niece gets that and loves the movie. 🙂 Oh, and to let you know: Mike and I vacationed in Ireland, and visited Guinness Castle (actually stayed there) where the movie was filmed. It’s gorgeous, and so fun for us now to see the movie and identify places we actually saw. The “extra” in the film who wears the overalls at the train station, and who doesn’t have lines, was named Stephen Lydon–I suspect he’s passed on by now. 🙁 His claim to fame was that he appeared w/ John Wayne in a movie, and that his house was used as the house where the Bishop lived (I think). Anyway, he’d get into conversations w/ American tourists and “lure” them onto his little dinghy boat for a fee. It was delightful, and he had the gift for Irish gab. So we bit the bait, and he took us out in his little boat onto Lough Corrib and then, in the middle of that beautiful body of water, he tipped his hat, smiled w/ those Irish twinkling eyes of his and said, “Would you like a cup of tea?” Well, who wouldn’t?! So there we sat, in the middle of that peaceful “lough” (lake) and sipped a hot cup of Irish tea, just boiled in a little kettle on his just-happened-to-have-with-him Bunsen burner, and talked into the afternoon. We were charmed. Later, Mike fished for “trout as long as your arm” (a movie quote), right where Ward Bond, who played a parish priest, had fished. Wonderful memories. I want to go back!! Look what you have started, Sandy! A flight of memories for me, all thanks to one little poem.

        Love you,

        Lynn

        • Oh, what a fun story! Lured out for tea in a dingy in a lough with Lydon. You have the best tales to share.

          Isn’t that one thing poetry can do for us–take us on a flight of thoughts and memories? I love it. And yes… we often forget that we can’t stamp today on yesterday. That’s part of what makes me so mad about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name being stripped from ALSC’s award. One of my granddaughters is Native American. When I visited Hemingway’s House in Key West, I almost bought a book of his poetry until I thumbed through it and saw some of his references about African Americans. I just couldn’t buy it. Now I kind of wish I had if only for more insight into those times.

          Thanks for popping in and having tea with me, Lynn. 🙂

  2. Sandy! Oh I love how you strung my references together alliteratively! Like you, I hear music in words that we write. Isn’t it such a discerning process in choosing one word over another, relishing the sound, but not sacrificing (ever) the meaning? Meaning for me comes before sound–the sounds I select must be sensical, but oh never to write sans music. Yes, poetry does inspire both flights of fancy and flights of memory. And while one must never approve sin, one still must understand context. You won’t see Sean sinning against Mary Kate, though (at least I don’t think)–and because of my earlier reference, I simply don’t understand how people take umbrage with their relationship. It simply surprised me. I’m unfamiliar w/ your reference to Wilder’s award, or what may have been stripped from Hemingway’s poetry. I think maybe something like changing Twain’s writing, but I’m simply not knowledgeable. And I love that we can enjoy tea and poetry and sympathy across these not-so-distant cybermiles!! Anytime you’re up for it, Sandy, I am!

    xoxo
    Lynn

  3. Okay girls😊 let me just say not only was I smitten with the poem and the reading of said…I also was captivated by your delightful conversation. I would apologize for listening in, but honestly I enjoyed it far too much to be sorry. I just hope on a field of wild clover that you both continue to find your teacups full and the ink of Innisfree flowing freely in your art…wherever that boat may take you.

    • Hey, Patsy. Eavesdropping is welcomed and encouraged here, and I’m smitten with the thought of a field of wild clover. We’re serving up green jasmine tea tonight an the moonlight. Help yourself to a warm biscuit drizzled with some fresh honey from the comb.

    • Oh Patsy! It’s been such a long time since AWSA & CBA, huh?! What fun to see that you have joined sweet Sandy’s little tete-a-tete poetr-tea! You are one poetic soul in much of your writing, and I have seen you discuss this on your blog. I will never forget your poetic endorsement of my book, and I’m so grateful, btw. 🙂 I know that Sandy’s ink flows freely, and I love how she is encouraging us to elevate our spirits through lyrical words. And my Innisfree ink will indeed flow freely as well very soon. I will be headed to the cabin shortly for a little R & R and tea and poetry. The cabin is always equipped with a tea kettle, and lots of Irish tea. I’ll be taking cream and honey along from home. I can look for a wild clover field when I walk the winding, wooded paths. I will also look for you and your delightful Porch Pals in Saint Louis (Florissant suburb) this October. It would be lovely if you would recite your own poem for this event. Also, I’m taking the liberty of sharing on generous Sandy’s blog an excerpt by Tennyson’s Ulysses which I heard the magnificent British actress Helen Mirren read on television. This poem encourages me that it is never to late to live God’s dreams for our lives, be it writing poetry or books or singing lyric songs as I am prone to do. I hope to see you in St. Lou-ee-Lou-ee this autumn! Meet me at the porch! 🙂
      Love
      Lynn

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