Happy Bloomsday!
In honor of Bloomsday, we
read a poem of great beauty by James Joyce. Although best known for his
novels, Joyce wrote gorgeous poems, many in a classical style, many
employing unconventional touches such as unusual word forms or new
words entirely. A native of Dublin, he spent much of his adult life
outside of Ireland. Psychiatrists have recently speculated that Joyce
may have suffered from Asperger's Syndrome and it has been widely
reported that he was afraid of dogs and thunderstorms. His daughter
Lucia was analyzed by Carl Jung, who speculated that both father and
daughter were schizophrenic. Diagnoses aside, and whatever one may
think of Ulysses, Joyce was a literary figure of tremendous influence whose work will be read for ages to come.
At That Hour When All Things Have Repose
By James Joyce
First published in Chamber Music, Elkin Mathews, London, 1907
Thursday, June 18, 2009 12:50 AM
At That Hour When All Things Have Repose
By James Joyce
First published in Chamber Music, Elkin Mathews, London, 1907
- At that hour when all things have repose,
- O lonely watcher of the skies,
- Do you hear the night wind and the sighs
- Of harps playing unto Love to unclose
- The pale gates of sunrise?
- When all things repose do you alone
- Awake to hear the sweet harps play
- To Love before him on his way,
- And the night wind answering to antiphon
- Till night is overgone?
- Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
- Whose way in heaven is aglow
- At that hour when soft lights come and go,
- Soft sweet music in the air above
- And in the earth below.
-
Annmarie, you caring and compassion has pierced the bubble of sadness surrounding my memories of Dave. Thank you for the double Haiku, in some transcendent way, you captured it all perfectly and helped me speak his truth. You are a profoundly wonderful woman. Thank you. HUGS
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