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fancyskeletons's review against another edition
2.0
Very strange to read such simple poetry by an author who is known for his very complicated prose. That's not a bad thing, just surprising. The poems in this are really straightforward, all related to love.
I don't particularly like romantic poetry, so I think these are just fine, but my favourite was "Gentle Lady, Do not Sing":
Gentle lady, do not sing
Sad songs about the end of love
Lay aside sadness and sing
How love that passes is enough
I don't particularly like romantic poetry, so I think these are just fine, but my favourite was "Gentle Lady, Do not Sing":
Gentle lady, do not sing
Sad songs about the end of love
Lay aside sadness and sing
How love that passes is enough
sarahepierce's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
angelaonmars's review against another edition
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
alexaamackie's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
leic01's review against another edition
4.0
I
“Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
There's music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying“
Early Joyce's poetry has a dream-like atmosphere of hopeful and playful young naive love. This a completely different side of Joyce, lacking the density and intertextuality of his other works, as the simplicity and freshness of verses shine through. Poems embody the nostalgic fantasy of innocence, purity, childhood, magical nature and fairy-tale love story.
V
“Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair,
I hear you singing
A merry air.
My book was closed,
I read no more,
Watching the fire dance
On the floor.
I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard you singing
Through the gloom.
Singing and singing
A merry air,
Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair.“
Joyce seems to be in a quest for regaining innocence and creating a world too pure for shame to exist, a musical cosmos full of vivid, unbelievably charming imagery of nature.
VII
“Who goes amid the green wood
With springtide all adorning her?
Who goes amid the merry green wood
To make it merrier?
Who passes in the sunlight
By ways that know the light footfall?
Who passes in the sweet sunlight
With mien so virginal?
The ways of all the woodland
Gleam with a soft and golden fire -- -
For whom does all the sunny woodland
Carry so brave attire?
O, it is for my true love
The woods their rich apparel wear -- -
O, it is for my own true love,
That is so young and fair.“
It is interesting that Joyce allegedly had his first sexual (but not also romantic) experiences very early, so Chamber Music represents the longing for the purity of idealized first love. Not being able to find true love as a young man with a bad reputation, always rejected, he was condemned to searching it in the arms of women that also had a bad reputation. Chamber Music is the poetry of dreamer, misfit and loner that fantasized about one day being worthy of true love. Poetry of Chamber Music perfectly channels Joyce's inner world full of romantic thoughts and longings. Juvenile and beautiful.
XX
“In the dark pine-wood
I would we lay,
In deep cool shadow
At noon of day.
How sweet to lie there,
Sweet to kiss,
Where the great pine-forest
Enaisled is!
Thy kiss descending
Sweeter were
With a soft tumult
Of thy hair.
O unto the pine-wood
At noon of day
Come with me now,
Sweet love, away.“
To his love Nora, he wrote a letter about Chamber Music while she was reading poems:
“When I wrote them I was a strange lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that some day a girl would love me. But I never could speak to the girls I used to meet at houses. Their false manners checked me at once. Then you came to me. You were not in a sense the girl for whom I had dreamed and written the verses you find now so enchanting. She was perhaps (as 1 saw her in my imagination) a girl fashioned into a curious grave beauty by the culture of generations before her, the woman for whom I wrote poems like 'Gentle lady' or 'Thou leanest to the shell of night.' But then I saw that the beauty of your soul outshone that of my verses. There was something in you higher than anything I had put into them. And so for this reason the book of verses is for you. It holds the desire of my youth and you, darling, were the fulfillment of that desire.“
“Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
There's music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying“
Early Joyce's poetry has a dream-like atmosphere of hopeful and playful young naive love. This a completely different side of Joyce, lacking the density and intertextuality of his other works, as the simplicity and freshness of verses shine through. Poems embody the nostalgic fantasy of innocence, purity, childhood, magical nature and fairy-tale love story.
V
“Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair,
I hear you singing
A merry air.
My book was closed,
I read no more,
Watching the fire dance
On the floor.
I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard you singing
Through the gloom.
Singing and singing
A merry air,
Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair.“
Joyce seems to be in a quest for regaining innocence and creating a world too pure for shame to exist, a musical cosmos full of vivid, unbelievably charming imagery of nature.
VII
“Who goes amid the green wood
With springtide all adorning her?
Who goes amid the merry green wood
To make it merrier?
Who passes in the sunlight
By ways that know the light footfall?
Who passes in the sweet sunlight
With mien so virginal?
The ways of all the woodland
Gleam with a soft and golden fire -- -
For whom does all the sunny woodland
Carry so brave attire?
O, it is for my true love
The woods their rich apparel wear -- -
O, it is for my own true love,
That is so young and fair.“
It is interesting that Joyce allegedly had his first sexual (but not also romantic) experiences very early, so Chamber Music represents the longing for the purity of idealized first love. Not being able to find true love as a young man with a bad reputation, always rejected, he was condemned to searching it in the arms of women that also had a bad reputation. Chamber Music is the poetry of dreamer, misfit and loner that fantasized about one day being worthy of true love. Poetry of Chamber Music perfectly channels Joyce's inner world full of romantic thoughts and longings. Juvenile and beautiful.
XX
“In the dark pine-wood
I would we lay,
In deep cool shadow
At noon of day.
How sweet to lie there,
Sweet to kiss,
Where the great pine-forest
Enaisled is!
Thy kiss descending
Sweeter were
With a soft tumult
Of thy hair.
O unto the pine-wood
At noon of day
Come with me now,
Sweet love, away.“
To his love Nora, he wrote a letter about Chamber Music while she was reading poems:
“When I wrote them I was a strange lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that some day a girl would love me. But I never could speak to the girls I used to meet at houses. Their false manners checked me at once. Then you came to me. You were not in a sense the girl for whom I had dreamed and written the verses you find now so enchanting. She was perhaps (as 1 saw her in my imagination) a girl fashioned into a curious grave beauty by the culture of generations before her, the woman for whom I wrote poems like 'Gentle lady' or 'Thou leanest to the shell of night.' But then I saw that the beauty of your soul outshone that of my verses. There was something in you higher than anything I had put into them. And so for this reason the book of verses is for you. It holds the desire of my youth and you, darling, were the fulfillment of that desire.“
synkopenleben's review against another edition
2.0
Some of Joyce's early poems. Bare, melodic, totally drab compared to his later prose. If it hadn't had Joyce's name on the cover this would have been totally unremarkable. Only the last poem elevates this collection of uneventful love poems to something worthwhile to read.
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
clss97's review against another edition
1.0
Joyce has never been a favourite, but I would always choose Dubliners over this. The repetition and simple lack of metre... Poetry is not his forte.
ink_soul's review against another edition
3.0
"O, hurry over the dark lands
And run upon the sea
For seas and lands shall not divide us,
My love and me.
Now, wind, of your good courtesy
I pray you go
And come into her little garden
And sing at her window;
Singing: The bridal wind is blowing For Love is at his noon;
And soon will your true love be with you,
Soon, O soon."
And run upon the sea
For seas and lands shall not divide us,
My love and me.
Now, wind, of your good courtesy
I pray you go
And come into her little garden
And sing at her window;
Singing: The bridal wind is blowing For Love is at his noon;
And soon will your true love be with you,
Soon, O soon."
dedalusfire's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
Todavía no era el Joyce al que admiro y venero, pero es una colección de poemas de amor preciosos y muy líricos. No es mi estilo favorito de poesía, pero aún así no me arrepiento de haberlo leído ya que siempre es un placer leer al gran James Joyce.
Todavía no era el Joyce al que admiro y venero, pero es una colección de poemas de amor preciosos y muy líricos. No es mi estilo favorito de poesía, pero aún así no me arrepiento de haberlo leído ya que siempre es un placer leer al gran James Joyce.