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the ocean always dreamed blue dreams

The Anger and The Anguish

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I read several good books in 2011. I read "Candide," "The Crying of Lot 49", "Housekeeping," "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," and "The Dubliners." I read others, but these I read last fall and today it is of "The Dubliners" I speak.

I've been wanting to read something by Joyce. Eventually I hope to read "Ulysses." I think that might be akin to saying that someday I'd like to climb Mount Everest, for me anyway. So reading "The Dubliners" and finally, finally reading "The Dead" and getting to see what everyone's been talking about and alluding too after all these years was marvelous.

The stories, twelve in all, are written with such an understated affect. I shamelessly mined the internet for decent critiques afterward to help me understand the import of what I'd read. My favorites are "Araby", "Eveline" and of course "The Dead,": all ones that I easily related to. The fact that they ALL end sadly, that there is such despair, that their growth as humans so stunted, so...so...paralyzed was simply haunting. Such spare little works, such a depth of meaning.

I assigned my classes a book report. They are due this week. Hah! They have to create something; I gave them eight choices, a poem based on a theme of their book; a comic strip that relates key ideas; a map of important places in the story; design costumes for characters, etc. I thought about doing the map, but in the end was challenged to write a poem. I felt foolish, because of course, nothing I write will even remotely have the depth of symbolic meaning that Joyce is able to pack in his writing, almost offhandedly. It simply takes one's breath away.

So, there is structure. There is a death in the first stanza, and an impending one in the last. The first two stanzas have to do with childhood, the middle one, youth, the last one, adulthood. There is betrayal and the church, and I'll leave you to find those, and make of it all what you will.

This poem, by the way, while it does have elements from my life, is not a "confessional." It was written in a deliberative manner and style that is supposed to reflect that of "The Dubliners," and while I hope there is feeling in it, it wasn't written to assuage mine.

The Anger and The Anguish

The cat spent the day
dying
tiny and frail,
still she tipped her head up hopefully at me
as she followed me from room to room
so unsubstantial
I felt she might fall apart in my arms
would that she were a wafer I could place on my tongue

My father my brother
and I wedged in between
We're driving to a place
with a tall fence
dropping off an inconvenient animal
Who, I believe, will come home to us one day
and still I cry
silent tears slipping down

Will you, will you go with me?
Will you dance with me?
quiet girl with gypsy dreams
and the answer, wedged between my anger and my anguish
no, and no, and no, and no

but when I connive with myself
to break away
to make a new union
the chalice
and three hearts broken
a kiss for you my sweet, and you and you

Come home come home
sweet girl
the old woman beckons
but her heart, too,
is left, bereft
by young fleet and selfish feet

Sitting in the dark
talking softly to myself
The Lord have mercy on my soul

Qimissung
January 2010

Updated 01-06-2012 at 08:54 AM by qimissung

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Comments

  1. PrinceMyshkin's Avatar
    First of all, it's an astounding poem; it reads as if you could easily have provided ten times the number of words in it but restricted yourself to the essence.

    Apropos Joyce, before you dive into Ulysses perhaps you should read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"? I'm sure you will love that.

    Finally: Happy New Year!!
  2. qimissung's Avatar
    Thank You, Prince.

    Perhaps I will try "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." I read the first page once and blanched. Maybe I will be able to manage it now.

    And a Happy New Year to you, too, my friend.
  3. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    Another wonderful poem Qimi, you're really on a roll. I love that first stanza, the dying cat (so sad), and the rhythmic lyricism of the rest.

    I'd love to hear what you thought of Housekeeping. I read Home by Robinson last year and loved it. So sad. I hear what you're saying about Joyce; I've got Ulysses as one of my potential mammoth reads for this year but I also tried reading Portrait and balked at the first page which just seemed to be a load of unreadable gobbledigook. I guess I didn't really give it a chance. Maybe I'll find Ulysses easier. Maybe.
  4. Virgil's Avatar
    Some of those Dubliners stories are outstanding and some are rather mundane in my opinion. But the great stories are really great. The ones I really like are "The Sisters," "Araby," and "The Dead." Ulysses frankly needs a guide to understand. But once you do understand it, I think you would like it. I think. It took me a second reading to appreciate it. Some consider it the greatest novel ever written. Those Joycean acolytes irritate me. It's a great work for sure, but that's just going too far.
  5. Virgil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
    AI hear what you're saying about Joyce; I've got Ulysses as one of my potential mammoth reads for this year but I also tried reading Portrait and balked at the first page which just seemed to be a load of unreadable gobbledigook. I guess I didn't really give it a chance. Maybe I'll find Ulysses easier. Maybe.
    Not sure you will find it easier Fifth. Portrait is "gobbledigook" in those first few pages because Joyce is writing from a baby's (the central character's) point of view. But within a few pages the character matures and the writing reflects it. If you go in twenty pages, the writing becomes much more normal. One thing to always keep in mind when reading Joyce is that the prose style being employed is reflecting the mental framework of the character who's point of view we are seeing through. In Ulysses he does this on steroids, since it's not just one central character and the mental framework is not shifting with maturity of age but with setting and scene. And each chapter is completely different.
  6. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    Virgil, does it help if you've read The Odyssey? Sigh; everything people say just puts me off reading Joyce.
  7. Virgil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
    Virgil, does it help if you've read The Odyssey? Sigh; everything people say just puts me off reading Joyce.
    If you're asking then you must be aware that each chapter of Ulysses follows a chapter in The Odyssey. Actually I think Joyce consolidates a few of the later chapters of the Oddyssey since the Oddyssey has 24 chapters and Ulysses has 18. And I guess you know that Leopold Bloom is Odysseus, and Bloom's day (the novel takes place all in a single day) is a re-enactment of the odyssey. It's not critical that you read The Oddyssey first. Actually one doesn't realize the patterns anyway, except for the chapter titles. But if you're to make sense of it, you should be aware of the events in The Oddyssey. That's why a guide book is helpful.

    There are other parallels in Ulysses as well. I had not realized until mid way into my second reading that each chapter is identified with a body part. And there are more such parallels. It's Joyce's way of making Bloom possibly the most three dimensional character in literary history. That's the greatness of the work. Bloom is flesh and blood. The story itself is not all that interesting if you ask me. In fact Nabokov did not think this a great novel at all. But it is. The theme of modern flesh and blood contrasted against an ancient heroic figure is brilliant.
  8. qimissung's Avatar
    Yeah, that's why I would like to read it...someday
  9. Jack of Hearts's Avatar
    Just two things. We like the same stories from Dubliners. That's a very fine poem.








    J
  10. The Comedian's Avatar
    I'm just getting caught up with my blog reading. I really enjoyed this list and your praise of Dubliners. I've read that book, but a while ago. In high school, I think.

    As a teacher, I loved your assignment that you made -- very interactive and "multiple intelligence" based.