Short Questions (2 Marks)
Question 1 : What three things will the poet like to do at Innisfree?
Answer : Innisfree is a small Island in a lake that provides the poet the opportunity to do what he likes. Three things that he will do there are building a small cabin with clay and wattles, plant nine rows of beans and rear bees in a beehive.
Question 2 : How shall the poet live at the isle of Innisfree?
Answer : The poet will live at the Isle of Innisfree peacefully and freely in a cabin made of clay and wattles. The poet would cultivate beans and gather honey from the honeybees there.
Question 3 : How is the roadway in the city different from the Isle of Innisfree?
Answer : The roadway in the city is dull and grey. However, there is nature’s beauty all around at Innisfree. The poet hears the soft lapping of lake water, the singing of the cricket and sees the birds flying.
Question 4 : Where does the poet want to go and why?
Answer : The poet wants to go to Innisfree, a rural island, because it will provide him everything that he desires. Most of all, he will get peace there. He envisions a simple life in a cottage surrounded by a garden instead of the dull pavement of the city.
Question 5 : How will the poet have peace at Innisfree?
Answer : The poet is a lover of nature. He will enjoy the natural beauty of Innisfree, undistributed by the hustle and bustle of the city where he is now a days. Thus he will have peace at Innisfree.
Question 6 : How would the poet enjoy his time at Innisfree?
Answer : In the mornings he will watch the fallen dewdrops through the morning mist and hear the cricket singing. In the evenings, he will see the colourful wings of the flying linnet birds. At midnight , he will watch the stars glowing in the sky. All these are enjoyable to him.
Question 7 : Explain the words, ‘lake water lapping with low sounds’?
Answer : These words describe the beautiful natural environment at Innisfree, where the lake water strikes the island with a soft sound on its shore. As there is no noise around, one can hear this soft sound also.
Question 8 : How does the poet miss the Isle of Innisfree?
Answer : The poet spent some time of his childhood at Innisfree. He keeps on hearing the sounds of that place and feels that it is calling to him. He wants to escape from the city and go there. So he misses the Isle of Innisfree very much as there is no peace or solitude in the busy city of London.
Long Questions (8 Marks)
Question 1 : How does the isle of Innisfree contrast with the place where the poet now stands?
Answer : The poet contrasts the colourful images of the island with the dull images of the city. The poem is based on these two images. The island is bright even at night with the glow of stars and music due to the cricket singing , the bees buzzing and the lake water lapping softly on its shore. In contrast, the roadways in the city are noisy. Where the city’s roadways and pavements are dull and grey, the isle is having a purple glow at noon. Thus there is a major contrast between the two places. The isle of Innisfree is full of peace as it is uninhabited and far away from the city. It is full of natural surroundings.
Question 2 : Describe Innisfree as visualised by the poet so graphically.
Answer : Innisfree is an island in a lake far away, both physically and metaphorically , from the dull grey city. You can see dewdrops on the ground through the morning mist, while a cricket is singing. At noon the Sun glows with a purple glow, while in the evening the colourful linnet birds start to fly to their nests. At midnight the sky is alight with the glow of stars. The lake water laps softly on the shore of the island.
The poet would like to live there alone in a cabin built with clay and wattles (making for making walls, fences), rearing bees for honey and planting nine rows of beans.
Question 3 : Life in cities is so mechanical that people long/desire to go places which are peaceful and full of natural beauties. How it is a flaw of urbanisation. Elaborate in context of this poem ‘The lake Isle of Innisfree’.
Answer : Due to urbanisation a city starts getting crowded with more and more of cemented buildings, less of open spaces and peaceful areas. Due to over population, industrialisation and pollution, life in cities becomes stuffy and noisy, men lead a mechanical life with no peace or solitude.
The poet feels that only when we associate ourselves with the nature, then we will get a heavenly bliss. Poet’s idea of peace is modeled (based) on the usual early morning sights one sees in rustic island life.
The poet who lives in London and leading a mad city life, finally decides to go to Innisfree, never to return. Standing in the street, he dreams of the beautiful and quite Lake of Isle of Innisfree and the secluded and self-sufficient life he would have lived there.