Songs

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

by Muriel Herbert

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'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'


Text

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
English source: 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 gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Composer

Muriel Herbert

Muriel Herbert (1897-1984) was born in Sheffield and grew up in Liverpool. She showed musical talent at an early age but the death of her father when she was twelve plunged the family into poverty. The Liverpool Scholarship in Composition enabled…

Poet

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two…

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