Class 9 Beehive Poem Chapter 4 Important Question Answers - The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Ques 1: Describe the person, the place or the thing brought vividly to life by the poet.
Answer: The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats vividly describes an island in the lake of Innisfree. The island is an incredibly peaceful place. An island is also a place of great natural beauty. Yeats describes many different aspects of its appeal, from the various birds and insects to the striking light at different times of day. This is a landscape that has not been damaged or diminished by human interference.

Ques 2: Why does the poet want to go to Innisfree?
Answer: The poet wants to go Innisfree in search of peace. He does not like the noisy place as London is. He wants to live in a place which. The poet craves for some peace and hence he wants to go to Innisfree. There he wants to make a small cabin and grow beans. He wants to live there alone.

Ques 3: How is the city life different from life at the Lake of Innisfree?
Answer: The poet does not like city life. The pavements are dull and grey. There is chaos all around. But there is nature’s beauty all around in Innisfree. It is a dream place for the poet which exists in reality. There is perfect harmony on the island between the plants and the weather.

Ques 4: Briefly describe one major theme of the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”.
Answer: A major theme in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, is nature versus civilization. What we value in life is often the exact opposite of what civilization brings with it. Nature allows us to explore the various forms of life but civilization has certain set rules with which we have to abide.

Ques 5: What is the tone of the poem?
Answer: The poem has a very calm arid relaxing tone. The reader may picture a person physically going to this place called Innisfree but the narrator of the poem is visiting this place in his imagination. It helps him to relax and escape the rush of modem living.

Ques 1: In the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, what does the poet find so attractive about ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.
Answer: The thing that the poet finds so attractive about Lake Isle of Innisfree is its promise of peace.
The poet, then, long for this place which affords a sense of contentment and relaxation far from the busy modem life. The poem’s slow and regular meter helps to convey this languid, dreamy effect. There is also the vivid impressionistic description of the colours and beauties of this place, and the soothing stir of nature which is so different from the strident noise of the city where the poet actually is, as the final stanza makes clear.
The poet, then, is physically trapped in the city, but he can imagine the beauty of Innisfree and this gives him spiritual sustenance. This is one of Yeats’s early lyrics, exhibiting a familiar romantic sensibility in its praise of the deep purity and beauty of nature which is contrasted with the drabness, shallowness and sterility of modem urban living.

Ques 2: In your opinion, what words or phrases used by the poet are the most effective in bringing the person, place or thing fo life? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: Throughout the poem, Yeats uses a variety of imaginative phrases to capture the essence of the Lake Isle. He brings the island to life by referring to the different birds and insects there. He comments on how “the cricket sings” and refers to”linnet’s wings”. This gives a sense of energy on the island, and reminds us of what a natural place it is.
 The line “and live alone in the bee-loud glade” correctly captures the point that Yeats is trying to make about the island. It is an isolated place, where he can enjoy the solitude.
In the second stanza of the poem, Yeats describes how the light changes on the island throughout the day. He tells us that “noon’s a purple glow”. This light brings the entire lake Isle to life.
Finally, Yeats manages to capture the sounds of the island. He tells us that he can hear” water lapping in low sounds by the shore”. Yeats uses alliteration to recreate the sounds. By repeating the letter “I” so many times, we get a sense of the slow and gentle movement of the water.

Ques 3: Does the poem celebrate the theme of escapism? Explain.
Answer: The poem focuses on Innisfree as a place of escape for the speaker. The speaker describes Innisfree as a simple, natural environment where he will build a cabin and live alone. ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ expresses the idea that nature provides an inherently restorative place to which human beings can go to escape the chaos and corrupting influences of civilization. In this poem, the speaker/Yeats longs to live in the simplicity of nature, with no extraneous distractions of city life or the superfluous habits, customs, and daily routines of an increasingly fast-paced, modem world. The speaker is only dreaming of “getting away from it all.”Even if he never goes, he will at least have the mental escape. This is the saving grace; even if he can not get out of the city, he can imagine the escape as he can will himself to hear the lake water lapping even while standing on the pavement in the city. There is another appeal/implication that one can never go back to the past place of nostalgia and youth, but through imagination and reflection, one can always have the mental escape and memory of another time and place.