Question 1:
What kind of a place is Innisfree ?
Answer:
Innisfree is a lovely island. It is situated in a lake. It is a place of great natural beauty. It is free from the noises of the modern world.
Question 2:
What three things does the poet want to do when he goes back to Innisfree ?
Answer:
He wants to build there a small cabin in a secluded place. Near this cabin, he will grow vegetables for his own use. He will also have a hive for the honeybees.
Question 3:
What does the poet hear and see in Innisfree and what effect does it have on him ?
Answer:
The poet hears there cricket’s song in the dim light of the dawn. In the evening, he hears the song of the linnets flying all around. At midnight, he sees the stars glimmering in the sky. All these beauties of nature bring peace to the poet’s mind.
Question 4:
What does the poet hear in his ‘heart’s core’ even when he is far away from Innisfree ?
Answer:
The poet hears the lake water beating against the shores of the lake. He hears this sound in his heart day and night. He feels it is calling him to come back to Innisfree.
Question 5:
How does the poet contrast Innisfree with where he is now standing ?
Answer:
The poet is standing on a London pavement. It is a noisy and crowded place. But Innisfree is a place of great natural beauty. It gives peace to the mind. Thus the poet finds a great contrast between the two places.
Question 6:
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:
Innisfree is both an actual place and also a state of mind. The poet had spent his childhood on this beautiful island. Now the beauty of that place is haunting him. He hears in his heart the lake water beating against the shores of the lake. He feels that it is calling him to come back to Innisfree.
Question 7:
Look at the words the poet uses to describe what he sees and hears at Innisfree.
- bee-loud glade
- evenings full of the linnet’s wings
- lake water lapping with low sounds
What pictures do these words create in your mind ?
Answer:
- Bee-loud glade : The pictures of a lovely glade comes to our mind. The honeybees are humming loudly all around. Their sweet humming is producing a sweet music
- Evenings full of the linnet’s wings : The picture of a lovely evening comes to our mind. We see linnets flying all around in the sky. They are making a sweet music.
- Lake water lapping with low sounds : The picture of the lovely lake comes to our mind. We see the lake water beating gently against the shores. It is producing a soft music.
Question 8:
Look at these words :
‘........peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings.’
What do these words mean to you ? What do you think ‘comes dropping slow ... from the veils
of the
morning’ ? What does the cricket sing ?
Answer:
The poet feels himself already transported to Innisfree. Peace is coming to his troubled soul slowly. In the twilight of the morning, he hears the cricket singing somewhere near him. The cricket is singing songs of a carefree life.