Recently I have been learning about Irish Literature and focusing on that class only for 2 weeks. An English professor from Taylor flew out here for all of last week and we traveled with her for a few days up near Northern Ireland in Donegal, Sligo, and Derry. The purpose of these travels was to visit sites from our novels, plays, poems, and short stories we are reading. My favorite of the writers thus far is Yeats. I enjoy his poems with influences from nature and fairies. Pictured below are places we saw that are in his poems.
 |
| Innisfree |
 |
| Waterfall from poem, The Stolen Child |
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
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 sound by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
Yeats wrote this poem while away from Ireland, in expression of his desire to come back to Ireland and live in rest on the island of Innisfree, I don’t blame him!
Even though English is not my favorite subject, visiting waterfalls and lush green forests doesn't make it that harmful.
