The Sounds of Freedom

Perhaps Yeats' most famous poem is The Lake Isle of Innisfree, in which he describes the yearning he feels for the freedom of a life far from the "pavement" of the city, a life with nature in a "bee-loud glade." The poem speaks to the desire of each of us to "arise" to the spiritual.

In the last stanza Yeats says that "always night and day" he hears "lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" in his "deep heart's core."

I am reminded of my own experience of standing at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, gazing into the vast expanse, hearing the waves lap the shore. My thought: I am standing on the edge of mystery.

Richard Wilbur expressed the same thought in his poem, "For Dudley:"

All that we do
Is touched with ocean, yet we remain
On the shore of what we know.

Quoted in Edward Robinson, The Language of Mystery, at p. 5. Robinson explains:

That, in Richard Wilbur's words, is the universal human condition: to live on the edge of an infinity that touches us at every point, but which we rarely explore. All of our lives begin and end in mystery, and though we are generally successful, often for long periods, in finding distractions that will keep our minds off it, there are few who do not from time to time find some sense of this mystery encroaching upon them.

The "background noise" of the quiet lapping of the lake on the shore is a gentle reminder of the mystery that surrounds us. Like the slight whisper of the wind that Elijah hears, our greatest privilege as humans is to hear, and listen to, this lapping. For in it we experience awe before the greatness of the eternal mystery, God. And we experience a sign of our freedom: to be at home in the presence of our Creator, now and forever.

Listen to Yeats read his poem.

Listen to The Isle of Innisfree from the Quiet Man.

Listen to "Going Home"