The Lake Isle of Innisfree

This week’s Poetry Aloud is the lovely “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” by the Irish-English poet William Butler Yeats. He’s in the city, and he wishes instead he were in a more human place, which is, ironically, on a small island in the middle of a lake, where he can be alone with himself, and the beans he grows, and the bees he keeps for their honey. It’s a short poem — and perfect.

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 …