The Lake Isle of Innisfree

“The Stolen Child” by William Butler Yeats (1886)

This poem, written around the same time as “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” borrows its imagery from Irish mythology and uses the area near Sligo as its setting. The poem begins, “Where dips the rocky highland / Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, / There lies a leafy island” (Lines 1-3). Most scholars believe that “Sleuth Wood” is a reference to “Slish Wood” next to Lough Gill. The point at “Rosses” (Line 15) and the waterfall of “Glen-Car” (Line 29) are also nearby. Based on an Irish legend, the poem is about fairies luring a child to depart the human world and come with them. The fairies’ refrain ends each stanza:

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand (Lines 9-12, 24-27, 38-41).

While this poem is more otherworldly than “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” it shares its location and the sentiment of desiring escape from trouble. It was published in The Irish Monthly and later collected in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889).

“When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats (1892)