The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Lines by an Irish poet, first published in a London periodical in 1890.
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 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 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."The Lake Isle of Innisfree" — W. B. Yeats, from The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892)
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet who lived from 1865 to 1939.[2] He wrote the poem in 1888, recalling summers spent near Lough Gill in County Sligo, where Innisfree is a small uninhabited island.[2]
The poem first appeared in the London periodical The National Observer on 13 December 1890, and was collected in his book The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics in 1892.[2] The text reproduced here follows the version published by the Poetry Foundation.[1]
Wivenhoe Park, Essex
A wide green park under a clouded sky, with cattle at the grass and swans on a still lake, and a country house set among trees at the right.
John Constable was an English landscape painter who lived from 1776 to 1837.[1] He painted Wivenhoe Park in 1816 for Major-General Francis Slater-Rebow, showing the general's estate near Colchester in Essex, and exhibited the picture at the Royal Academy the following year.[1]
The work is oil on canvas and measures 56.1 by 101.2 centimeters.[2] It entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington through the Widener Collection and carries the accession number 1942.9.10.[2]
Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point
A view down into a wide valley from a high vantage, with steep granite cliffs rising on either side and a river winding across the forested floor.
Carleton Watkins was an American photographer who lived from 1829 to 1916.[2] He first photographed Yosemite in 1861 using a mammoth-plate camera that exposed glass negatives about 18 by 22 inches.[2] His prints were passed among members of Congress and are credited with helping prompt the Yosemite Grant that Abraham Lincoln signed in 1864.[2]
This albumen silver print was made from a negative of 1865 to 1866 and is held by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.[1]