Nationalism in Poetry: The Lake Isle of Innisfree

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Nationalism in Poetry
One of the themes expressed by poets whose advent can be traced to the French Revolution is the poetry of nationalism. The expression of nationalism in a poem is characterized by the poet's call for unity of people through the painting of unique myths of heroism associated with a given country. In most cases, the poetry of nationalism stems from a point of defeat, but the poets express the view that eventually the people will rise and claim victory and independence from the oppressors. Two poets who explored the theme of nationalism in their works are William Butler Yeats and T. S. Eliot. Two notable works that explore nationalism from their collection are The Lake Isle of Innisfree by Yeats, and The Waste Land by Eliot. In Lake Isle of Innisfree, Yeats explores nationalism from a romantic view; an approach that differs markedly from the pragmatic approach taken by Eliot in The Waste Land.
To a large extent, Yeats' form of nationalism can be largely characterized as romantic nationalism as evidenced by the various aspects of uniting Irish culture emerging from the poem. Yate’s poeticization of one of Ireland’s local landscapes in a manner that brings out the sentimental nature with which he regards his home country. From the poem, the reader can grasp the connection that Yeats has with his homeland. Yeats starts the first stanza with, “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,” (Ln 1) and ends it with “And live alone in the bee-loud glade (Ln 4).” The stanza communicates that Yeats has a spiritual connection with his homeland to the extent that he would prefer to live alone in a small cabin located in the country. The romantic relationship that Yeats has with his homeland emerges throughout the poem. Yeats notes, “And I shall have peace there, for peace comes dropping slow (Ln 5). The line expressed his view that he can only find peace in his homeland. The expression of nationalism only becomes apparent once one reads the poem and understands the context within which it was written.
Yates wrote the poem while he was aged 23 and living in London, England. From his memoirs, Yates notes that the poem was an expression of his teenage ambitions of leading a solitary life in nature. Historically, the poem was written during the Second Industrial Revolution which saw a significant increase in the wealth inequality in England and Europe as a whole (Foster 13). Yates did not like living in London and developed a sense of increased idealism about the natural world. Having received education in London schools, Yates was one of the Irish people who had experienced anti-Irish sentiment from some of the English people. At the time, Irish politicians had created a separate legislative body and some of them were actively demanding independence from Britain. Given the context, it is clear that Yates uses the poem as a way of inspiring nationalism from the Irish by offering a Romantic view that could unify people to reclaim their country. Leersen notes that “Poetry (and art in general) can, in this Romantic view, electrify; much as it results from rapturous inspiration, so too it, in turn, can inspire and enraptur...