The Lake Isle of Innisfree Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How does the poet describe the lake’s waves?
Answer
The poet says that the lake’s waves hit its shore and create a low sound. The sound, different from the sounds of the city, gives him great pleasure. He hears it in his heart and enjoys it. It also gives him solace and comfort as he realises he can visualise the island in his heart in the city.
Question 2. What does the poet dream of enjoying in the evenings?
Answer
The poet dreams of enjoying the songs of the linnets and the sound of the flapping of their wings as they fly back to their nests. He also hopes to enjoy the song of the cricket in the peaceful surroundings.
Question 3. How will the poet enjoy the night and day in Innisfree?
Answer
In the morning, the poet will hear the song of the cricket. He will have the opportunity to enjoy the purple glow of the noon. He will also watch and enjoy the glimmer of midnights.
Question 4. What does the poet hear at Innisfree?
Answer
He hears the pleasing noise of the bees in the orchard of Innisfree Island.
Question 5. What kind of life does the poet William Butler Yeats imagine in his poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”?
Answer
Yeats imagines Innisfree as an idyllic place of peace and solitude. He imagines living in a “small cabin” of “clay and wattles” where he will support himself on beans he plants and honey from his beehive, and he will “live alone in the bee-loud glade.” There is also a sense that the “peace” he will find there is connected to its natural beauty.
Question 6. How will the poet have calmness and tranquillity in Innisfree?
Answer
In Innisfree, the poet will live in a cabin made of clay and wattles. He will also have nine bean-rows and a beehive. He will get the opportunity to live in the glade with the sound of bees. He will certainly live in peace because it will drop from the veils of the morning where he can hear the songs of cricket.
Question 7. What kind of music will the poet enjoy on the Lake Isle of Innisfree?
Answer
On the Isle of Innisfree, the poet will enjoy the loud music of the bees and the mild music of the waves striking against the shore.
Question 8. Why does the poet want to have ‘bean rows’ and a ‘hive’ at Innisfree?
Answer
Nature has great healing power. When we sit in the lap of nature, we forget our sorrows. Our mind becomes fresh and we start our days with new energy. Besides, nature fills new hopes in human beings. For this, as human beings, our friendship with nature is quite essential.
Question 9. Write three things that the poet would like to do when he goes back to Innisfree.
Answer
Innisfree is a perfect island that provides everything desired by the poet. The poet will build a small cabin of clay and fence. He will have nine rows of beans. He will also have a hive for the honeybees.
Question 10. How does the poet describe the midnight and noon on the island?
Answer
Both midnight and noon on the island are visualized by the poet to be very bright with only different hues of brilliance – the twinkling light of the moon and the stars in the midnight and the bright purple shine in the noon.
Question 11. What are the roadways and the pavements a symbol of?
Answer
The roadways and the pavements are a symbol of the urban, noisy, and crowded places like London where the poet lived. They stand in contrast to the peaceful, soothing and colourful nature found back home on the Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Question 12. How will the poet live on the island of Innisfree ?
Answer
The poet will go to Innisfree and live in the lap of nature in quiet solitude. He will build a small cabin there. He shall have nine rows of beans and a hive of bees. He will survive on the beans and the honey cultivated by himself.
Question 13. Do you think Innisfree is only a place or a state of mind? Does the poet actually miss the place of his boyhood days?
Answer
The natural beauty of Innisfree is not the creation of the poet’s fancy. It is a real place that gives solace to the frustrated souls. The poet longs to live in such a beautiful and peaceful place. He misses it a lot.
Question 14. What does the poet hear in his ‘heart’s core’ even when he is far away from Innisfree?
Answer
The poet is far away from the island of Innisfree in London. However, he hears not the sound of city traffic, but the lake water lapping against the shore with low sounds in his heart’s core.
Question 15. How does the poet describe the mornings on the lonely island?
Answer
The poet describes the mornings on the lonely island to be very peaceful and quiet. The atmosphere of the morning is hazy with fog or mist. Out of the hazy heavens, peace comes on the land falling softly and noiselessly.
Question 16. What is it that fascinates the poet day and night?
Answer
Day and night the poet is fascinated by the gentle and pleasant sound of the waves lapping against the shore. He hears this delightful music in his imagination.
Question 17. Why does the poet repeat “I will arise and go now”?
Answer
The repetition of “I will arise and go now” emphasizes that the poet is extremely keen on abandoning the city and leave for the quiet, idyllic atmosphere of the Lake Isle. The use of ‘arise’ and ‘go’ reveal the intensity of his longing to escape from the restlessness and noise of the cities and reach the harmony and serenity of the world of nature available on the Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Explain the contrast between the last four lines of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and the rest of the poem.
Answer
In the opening lines of the poem, the poet’s tone is dreamy and hopeful as the poet declares his intention of going to Innisfree. This is mainly achieved by the use of the future tense and the speaker’s desire to “arise and go now” to Innisfree. The speaker is sure he will live happily, will build his own home and grow and harvest his own food.
Innisfree takes on a magical character in the second stanza. The buzzing of the bees has, quietened and has been replaced by the gentler noise of crickets, the air is filled with birds in flight, and night and day have reversed their roles: “midnight’s all a glimmer and noon a purple glow.” It is also a place where peace is slow in coming but arrives nonetheless.
The reader is, however, aware that the speaker is not where he wishes to be, yet. The longing becomes more intense in the final stanza when the speaker says he hears the call to go to Innisfree “always night and day” and is even more determined to go to Innisfree. There is a sharp tone shift in the final two lines created by use of present tense “I stand” and “I hear”.
The soothing tone and mood is abruptly cut off and replaced by cold reality and the imagery of the street – to “roadway” and “pavements grey”. The speaker would rather not be where he is in that moment and his tone is sombre. But this mood does not last, as the speaker shifts to the present tense showing that though he stands on the “grey” pavement, he can access Innisfree in his own heart at any time.
Question 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 London with its noise and grey pavements. He wants to live in a place which is the opposite of London; he craves for some peace and hence he wants to go to Innisfree where he will be self-sufficient. He will build a small cabin and grow beans and make his own honey by keeping honeybees. Instead of city noise, he will hear the buzzing of the bees and the sound of lake water lapping against the shore.
Question 3. Does the poet wish to escape reality in The Lake Isle of Innisfree?
Answer
The Isle of Innisfree is a place of escape for the speaker, who is unhappy living in the city. The thing that the poet finds so attractive about Lake Isle of Innisfree is its promise of peace. The speaker describes Innisfree as a simple, natural environment where he will build a cabin and live alone in the lap of nature.
He talks of the island as an inherently restorative place where human beings can go to escape the chaos and cheerless monotony of city life. The poet, then, longs 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, who is physically trapped in the city, imagines the beauty of Innisfree and this gives him spiritual sustenance in an increasingly fast-paced, modem world.
However, the speaker is only dreaming of “getting away from it all. Even if he never goes, he will at least escape to this Garden of Eden in his mind. He can imagine the escape as he can will himself to hear the lake water lapping even while he stands on the pavement in the city.
Question 4. How is the city life different from the life at the Lake of Innisfree?
Answer
City life according to the poet is routine and wearisome. The city is noisy, the pavements are dull and grey; there is chaos all around. But at Innisfree, he can escape the noise of the city and be lulled by the “lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.” On this small island, he can return to nature by growing beans and having bee hives, by enjoying the “purple glow” of noon, the sounds of birds’ wings, and, of course, the bees. He can even build a cabin and stay on the island.
Question 5. The Isle of Innisfree is both a place and the poet’s state of mind. Discuss.
Answer
The Isle of Innisfree is a tiny uninhabited island within the Lake Lough Gill in County Sligo in northwestern Ireland. The poet, William Butler Yeats, had spent his summers over here when he was a young boy. The calm, quiet, soothing environment of this Isle impressed him so much that he developed a spiritual kinship with this place. He can now hear voices calling within himself just as he heard the sounds of nature in Innisfree. The existence of Innisfree as the poet’s state of mind is as true as the real Innisfree. The images of this place haunt the poet in such a manner that he can visualize everything not in his mind but in his heart. The real place has given him such beautiful memories that he cherishes them even when he is amidst the roadways and pavements of a city. His desire to escape to Innisfree is so strong that his thoughts are overpowered by it. Thus, the poet’s state of mind itself Innisfree which stands as a symbol of peaceful existence amidst nature.
Question 6. Which values of life do the poet support?
Answer
The poet W. B. Yeats who himself is the speaker in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” gives us a peep into his mind and soul. His desire to return to a peaceful, quiet, and natural place, away from the bustle of urban life, brings forth the positive values that govern his life. In the poem, he emerges as a peace-loving fellow who is sick of the hectic, restless, noisy and materialistic life of the cities.
He emerges as a profound lover of natural beauty and tranquillity. His strong nostalgia for the beautiful sights and sounds on the Lake Isle and his desire to lead a simple life of unbroken solitude and peace on the island reveal the simplicity of his heart and mind.
The poet is endowed with profound imagination and sensitive observation. With very keen senses, he sees, observes and presents the beauty of the island in the morning, in the noontime, in the evening, and even at midnight. He can hear the sounds of the bees, the cricket, the linnet, and the sea-waves. He can visualize the tranquil glade, the glimmering light of the midnight and the purple glow of the afternoon. He can also hear the loud, unpleasant sounds of the traffic in cities and contrast it with the captivating and soothing music of the waves.
Further, the poet lacks a materialistic attitude towards life. He wants to evade the hectic activities of the materialistic life of the cities and live in a small cabin of clay and wattles. He wants to have only enough to fulfill the basic needs of life.
Thus, the poet comes forth as a person with a profound imagination, minute observation, strong memories and a deep love for nature. He is inspired by the values of contentment and harmony.
Question 7. Briefly describe the major theme of the poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, Nature vs City life.
Answer
A major theme in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, is nature versus the somber monotony of city life. Civilization, as represented by London, is monotonous and wearisome. On the other hand, Innisfree is magical with its He is not at peace, because peace is there only at Innisfree. Further, his use of “pavements gray” tells us that the urban environment in which he finds himself is exactly the opposite of the natural world he desires to return to.
On the other hand, Innisfree, which represents Nature, is magical in its appearance. The sounds one hears are the buzzing of bees, the flapping of the linnets’ wings, the singing of crickets and the lapping of the lake water aginst the shores. The sky is magical too. The dew drops from the sky in the morning light, the noon sky glows purple and the stars shimmer at midnight.
Question 8. How does the poet capture the sights and sounds of the Lake Isle of Innisfree?
Answer
The poet, W.B. Yeats, had spent many summers during his childhood in the Lake Isle of Innisfree. His memories are so vivid that the sights and sounds seem to have left an indelible impression on his mind. He beautifully portrays the vast, open stretch of land with a very tranquil environment prevailing from morning till evening. The midnight is aglow with the glimmering of the moon and the stars. The noons are bright with a purplish light. In the evening, the linnets, fluttering their wings in flight makes a very captivating sight.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree echoes with the alluring, soothing music of the insects, birds, and waves. The bees sing loudly and the linnets make the evenings energetic with their music. Moreover, there is soft music of the waves striking gently against the shore day and night. Thus, the sights and sounds described by the poet make the island an enthralling and alluring place.