"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, AND that has made all the difference" The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

DREAMING IN ENGLISH. Are you dreaming in English yet?

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Here you might find resources to help you navigate the muddy waters of English. The humble aim of this blog is just to keep you in touch with different types of English and different aspects of the English culture , to increase your curiosity about English through many different fields.

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domingo, 15 de febrero de 2015

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree...

Resultado de imagen de innisfree pictures yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, 
and a small cabin build there, of lay 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 morning 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 waters 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.

Resultado de imagen de william butler yeats
WILLIAM  BUTLER YEATS  was an Irish poet and playwright, winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature, and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. In 1893 he published "The Celtic Twilight", a collection of poems about Ireland and Irish legends and myths. He was quite involved in Irish politics and he believed in the power of literature to bring a sense of unity to Ireland.

This is what Yeats himself says about his own poem:

"I am going to begin with a poem of mine called 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' because if you know anything about me you will expect me to begin with it. It is the only poem of mine which is very widely known. When I was a young lad in the town of Sligo I read Thoreau's essays and wanted to live in a hut on an island in Lough Gill called Innisfree which means 'Heather Island'. I wrote the poem in London when I was about twenty three: one day in The Strand I heard a little tinkle of water and saw in a shop window a little jet of water balancing a ball on the top - it was an advertisement, I think, for cooling drinks - but it set me thinking of Sligo and lake water. I think there is only one obscurity in the poem - I speak of noon as a 'purple glow' - I must have meant by that the reflection of heather in the water"




After reading the poem try to answer the following questions:
1. What is suggested about the narrator by his desire to live on an unpopulated island? Might the island symbolyse something else?
2. We have an interesting use of imagery in the poem. Look for some examples of powerful images.
3. Look for one example of personification and metaphor.
4. The poem is also quite musical. Look for examples of alliteration.
5. Describe the place the narrator models in the poem and analyze the structure of his "fictional" space.
6. Analyze the syntactical structrure of sentences and look for repetitions, parallelisms, lexical repetitions and discuss about the effect of that.




The Stolen Child is one  of Yeats´ earliest poems. It is based on the myths and legends he heard from local people while growing up in County Sligo. He makes reference to a fantasy world where it is possible to obtain freedom and retain innocence. The image of the child taken away into a fairyland was quite popular in the Irish folklore. The child can´t help following the fairies because they are so enchanting and the new world he sees in front of him is so joyful and playful. Even though the child is unhurt, the reader can´t avoid a sense of uneasiness and confusion.

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we´ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
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

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
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.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the fills abovae Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
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.

Away with us he´s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He´ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human  child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world´s more full of weeping than he can understand.


Answer the following questions:
1. In the poem we have an ideal vision of Ireland and he uses a very effective imagery to achieve that. Find some examples.
2. Rhyme and Rhythm.
3. There is a refrain in the poem. What effect does it have on the reader?
4. We have the use of alliterations and repetition. Can you find some examples?
5. The language used is mellow and dreamlike. Can you look for some examples? What´s the purpose of using this type of words?
6. Is the child going away freely? Analyze the role of the fairies. Are they good or sinister and evil?
7. Two worlds are continously contrasted. Which ones and why?

10 comentarios:

Unknown dijo...

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The narrator would like to be always in this desolate island, with peace. The island might be a symbol of a place where the author likes to go to write his poems or a place where he would like to go to do it. We can find imageries in the last lines of the poem, such as “I hear lake waters lapping with low sounds by the shore” and “While I stand on the roadway or on the pavements grey”, which make a powerful image of the waves and the author, respectively. There are some metaphors in the sixth line (dropping from the veils of the morning) and the seventh line (There midnight’s all a glimmer and noon a purple glow) and a personification in the fifth line (peace comes dropping slow). The poem is made musical with the use of alliterations (and live alone in the bee-loud glade). The place mentioned by the poet is an isle in the lake Innisfree, described as a beautiful place full of trees, with animals such as bees inhabiting it. The poem is divided in four stanzas (quatrains) and has some repetitions (I will arise and go now) a parallelism in the seventh and eighth lines, which give certain rhythm to the poem.

The Stolen Child
The author uses imageries to describe Ireland, with its lakes, forests and islands (Of Sleuth Wood in the lake). Rhyme is abab in the first four lines while it is aabb in the rest. Rhythm is achieved with the use of repetitions, the last four lines are the some in all the stanzas, and alliterations (And of reddest stolen cherries). The refrain is located, as I said before, at the end of each stanza and gives rhythm to the poem. The language that the poet uses is mellow and dreamlike (fairy, moonlight…) in order to be similar to a legend and related with legendary worlds. I think that the child is attracted by the appearance of this new world with fantasy, where he can reach freedom, in contrast with the real world. The role of the fairies is positive because they bring the child to a world in which he would live happier than in the real world.

RAUL BRASERO dijo...

The author described Ireland with all the geographical features and to do this he uses imageries. In the first stanza the rhyme is different and it is abab and in the rest of the poem the rhyme is aabb. Rhythm is created in the poem by means of repetitions and alliterations. The refrain is located at the end of each stanza and it is use to give more emphasis to the meaning of the refrain and what he is talking about. There is alliteration in the first line of the third stanza and a repetition in the last stanza in the lines four and five. The language is mellow and dreamlike because he is describing and fairy world and he has to use a dreamlike language to create a beautiful image of that world in your mind. I think that the boy first is forced to go that place because of the huge attraction but later he is free. The real world and the fairy world are always in constant because the author wanted to convince the reader that the fairy one is better.

gonzaatleti99 dijo...

1. What is suggested about the narrator by his desire to live on an unpopulated island? Might the island symbolyse something else?
The isolated place is a place were he would find peace and inspiration for his poetry
2. We have an interesting use of imagery in the poem. Look for some examples of powerful images.
Reading this poems gets the "vission" of the classical hut in the middle of nowhere with a green patch surrounded by nature
3. Look for one example of personification and metaphor.
"the Cricket sings;", "There midnight´s all a glimmer"
4. The poem is also quite musical. Look for examples of alliteration.
"dropping from the veils of the morning to where the Cricket sings"
5. Describe the place the narrator models in the poem and analyze the structure of his "fictional" space.
In fact, it is not an invention but an idealisation, in which he gives the small island a free, non habited land full of peace



1. In the poem we have an ideal vision of Ireland and he uses a very effective imagery to achieve that. Find some examples.

He fills the poem with lots of nature sgins: exotic plants, lakes, animals... Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we´ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.

2. Rhyme and Rhythm.
1st four lines: abab, aabb in the rest
3. There is a refrain in the poem. What effect does it have on the reader?
For the world´s more full of weeping than you can understand. He advises children to keep on with their innocence, as this will keep them away from problems
4. We have the use of alliterations and repetition. Can you find some examples?
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world´s more full of weeping than you can understand.
(Repetition in each stanza, as a choir)

5. The language used is mellow and dreamlike. Can you look for some examples? What´s the purpose of using this type of words?
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
He replaces killing trouts into a soft act, but at the same times focuses on the trouts feelings

6. Is the child going away freely? Analyze the role of the fairies. Are they good or sinister and evil?
He escapes from the real world, helped by the fairies, which get advantage on the children's innocence.

Marta Baz dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Marta Baz dijo...

Marta Baz Romero 4ºD

The Stolen Child.

1. Some examples of imageries of Ireland's places:
"Of Sleuth Wood in the lake","Far off by furthest Rosses","Where the wandering water gushes From the fills abovae Glen-Car".

2.Rhyme and Rhythm.
Rhyme in the poem is abab the first four lines and the rest are aabb, and this happens in all the stanzas.
Rhythm is created by means of repetitions and alliterations. The most common repetitions:
"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."
this paragraph is repeated throughout the poem. Another example of repetition in the poem:
"Of the calves on the warm hillside Or the calves on the warm hillside".
Repetitions and alliterations emphasize the poem and make rhythm.

3.The refrain is at the end of each stanza, and made rhythm to the poem.

4. Alliterations: "Or the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob", "Where the wandering water gushes". Repetition: "Mingling hands and mingling glances".

5.The language used is mellow and dreamlike: "faery vats", "With a faery, hand in hand". The purpose of using this kind of language is to created a magic setting, typical of tales about legends or myths.

6.In my opinion, the faires are good. They try to get away the child, far from reality and the real world, where all are problems.They role is to bring him to a magical world,and I think that the child wants to go with them, because he thinks that he will be happier.

7. The two words which are continously contrasted is the real world between the fairy world.

HM-JG-DM-JR-AG dijo...

The Stolen Child:
-We can find several examples of an ideal vision and description of Ireland. For example in the beginning of the poem we can read: ``Where dips the rocky highland/ Of Sleuth Wood in the lake /There lies a leafy island
/Where flapping herons wake´´ he describes the Irish landscape and talks throughout the poem about the island.
-The rhyme is formed by groups of 4 verses which are abab in the first stanza a in the rest of the poem we can find the same structure but with aabb. There is rhythm in the poem, the poet uses the repetition of verses at the end of each stanza and the use of short simple verses also help to create rhythm.
-The refrain is located at the end of each stanza:``... For the world´s more full of weeping than you can understand´´ and is used to create and give rhythm to the poem.
-The poet uses several alliterations and repetitions such as the refrain of the last question which is a repetition of the same structure at the end of each stanza. Also there is a repetition of `` Of the calves on the warm hillside´´ to give rhythm. There is an alliteration in line or verse 3 `` There lies a leafy island 'because we can see that there is a repetition of the consonant ``L´´.
-The language is mellow and dreamlike in order to create a mystic and kind of fairy world. He uses words such as `` There we´ve had our fairy vats/ With a fairy, hand in hand´´.
-In my opinion, the boy is going freely because he is attracted on the new world and the fairies, I mean, the boy goes away due to the curiosity he has on the mystery and fantastic world. The fairies play an important role because they help and encourage the child to go to the fantastic world. I think that they are good because they led the child to live in a better place.
-The two worlds that are contrasted are the real world and that kind of mystic and fantastic world.
HUGO DE MINGO VILLAR 4ºD

Unknown dijo...

1.
This island seems to be a very peacefull and natural. So I guess that it is the reason why the author writes about it. Maybe that place could be a good place for him to write and have some inspiration.
2.
Reading what the author wrote, i´ve imagined a very rural cabin, very ecologist and sorrounded by nature.
3.
A personification could be "the Cricket sings" ´couse the crickets can´t really sing.
4.
I.m not sure but I think this is a alliteration: "dropping from the veils of the morning to where the Cricket sings".
5.
It´s a lonely island unhabited full of peace and nature.

1.
He talk about features of the nature: animals, plants, water and more. "Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we´ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys"
2.
At the very beggining he uses abab and in the rest he uses aabb.
3.
"For the world´s more full of weeping than you can understand" He warns the children that the must keep their innocence and they wont have problems in the future.
4.
It has repetitions in every stanza.
5.
"We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams"
6.
The fairies helped the children to get away from the real world and this makes the children more innocent.

Unknown dijo...

The Stolen Child
1. The author uses imageries such as "Where the wave of moonlight glosses", "Where the wandering water gushes" or "And of reddest stolen cherries".
2.The rhyme in each stanza follows a very similar structure in each of them: ABABCCDDEEFF. However, in some stanzas it slightly changes.
The rhyth is achived through the iambic meter.
3. The refrain creates an hipnotic atmophere and remembers the reader that the child is going there by his own will.
4.In the last stanza, we have the repetiton of the word "or". Also, we have an alliteration in "Or the kettle on the hob" and in"Where the wave of moonlight glosses".
5.An example of dreamlike words could be "Where the wave of moonlight glosses/The dim gray sands with light" and also "There we've hid our faery vats". This kind of words and prases makes the poem look like a dream, like a fantasy that is going on inside your mind, making its way into the reader deeper, as the intention seems to be reaching the uncouncious mind that hides in every human being and is only shown while we are asleep.
6. In some way, the child is going with the fairies on his own will. However, the fairies seem to be trying to put a spell on this child, so in some way they are evil. Also, it seems like they do not really want to harm this kid, even though they are acting like they are enchanting him, so in some way they are good too.
7. The worlds contrasted are the real, human world and the imagination, fairy world. This is because human beings have always confronted reality and dreams, so the fairies represent our wishes and our inner world, while the real world represents reality and our everyday life.

María

Adrian Barreno dijo...

I WILL ARISE AND GO NOW, AND GO TO INNISFREE...

1)I think that this poet wanted to be alone to focus on his imaginary idealized world as romantic poets did and to wonder about surrealistic themes, such as love.

2)I hear lake waters lapping with low sounds by the shore.

3)Personification ==> "peace comes dropping slow".
Metaphor ==> "There midnight´s all a glimmer and noon a purple glow".

4)Alliteration ==> "I hear lake waters lapping with low sounds by the shore" (repetition of "L" sound).

5)The author described a beautiful place, full of peace where you can live as you want in nature.

6)The author used the repetition of "and" at the beginning of the verse to emphasize in the enumeration of qualities this place had.
Also, the author used many times the pronoun "I", to express his feelings better in first person.

Unknown dijo...

1. The author use those imageries to describe the beutyfulness of the Irish landscape. We can see a great example in the first stanza:
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we´ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
So with this, we can imagine fields full of berrys and cherries, etc.

2. The rhythm is achieved with the repetition of rhymes at the end of each line, so the musicality is very well acieved. The first for lines are an example of an enclosed rhyme while the rest are all clerihews.

3. The refrain is located at the end of each stanza, in order to obtain rhythm in the whole poem. We can distinguish the change from "you" to "he" in the last stanza.

4. As an example of repetition would be "Round and round the oatmeal chest". A clear alliteration is "From ferns that drop their tears". This example of alliteration is double, with the letter "f" and the letter "t".

5. The language used is mellow and dreamlike because, appart from being talking about the Irish lanscape, is relating it with fairytales and Irish customs, and so that fairy atmosphere is achieved by this use of the language.

6. The boy is going out freely because this fairy world makes him feel more freedom than the real world. I think that the fairies makes him feel comfortable and happy about this new world.

7. The real world and the fairy world are continuously contrasted maybe because, as the poet has been born in a country with this beliefs, and is also so close to the war with Northern Irland, he prefer to convey us the peace and quietness of the fairy world.

Pablo Amor de Miguel.