A long time ago, another lifetime really, I was sitting in an Irish pub called Fado in Atlanta with the man I’d fall in love with over something as silly as him handing me a bottle of water later that evening when I noticed that my placemat had this poem printed on it in big blue letters.

I’m still in love with the guy, still have the placemat, still love Yeats and this poem always makes me want to be dreamy and cuddle up with my guy. It always makes me smile.

I love the sense of longing the poem invokes and the image of a peaceful place.

The round up is here.

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

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 mourning 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 sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

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