Stanza 2 Summary

Line 5

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

• Ah, so here's the motivation for wanting to build a little cabin in the middle of nowhere with not a soul nearby: peace! This guy just wants some P and Q. 
• The second part of the line, "peace comes dropping slow" is interesting, huh? So far, it looks like the speaker equates a slow, simple pace of life with peacefulness. 
• But why is peace "dropping"? What's that all about?
• If the speaker is so serious about getting some peace in his life, we might assume that he isn't feeling too peaceful where he is now. 
• Maybe he's feeling trapped, restless, and way too busy. Either way, he thinks that Innisfree is his ticket to happiness—a break from all the hubbub.

Line 6

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

• In the previous line we learned that "peace comes dropping slow." Here we're getting a hint (figuratively, or imaginatively) of where it comes from. 
• What are these "veils of the morning"? Maybe it's a metaphor for the fog of early morning, or the mist. This is a watery place, after all. Or maybe even the dew on the morning grass. These could all seem like veils that are lifted once the sun rises. 
• And what about "to where the cricket sings"? If we trace this a few lines back, Yeats is saying, peace falls slowly from the veils of morning and spreads to where the cricket sings. 
• Where's that? Hidden nooks in the woods, among grass and flowers. 
• He's talking nature big-time here. So far, peace equals nature in a serious way. 
• It also seems like peace isn't something he can create or have control over. It comes to him from nature; he can't make it happen in the city. So he's gotta go where the peace is—and that's Innisfree.

Lines 7-8

There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

• "There" refers to Innisfree and this cabin this dude imagines or plans to build.
• Apparently, in Innisfree, midnight is shimmering and beautiful and midday is a purple glow—this is starting to sound a little fairy-tale gorgeous, isn't it? 
• A linnet is a kind of bird that's like a finch. In other words, it's pretty small. 
• Saying that the evening is full of linnet's wings makes us think not only of one bird, but also of all of them in flight. Now that's an image. 
• The imagery is getting almost dreamlike—purple, hazy, full of birds in flight. We don't know about you, but we want to go to there.