Rather confused when reading a poem by Joyce

[Gibran]

Hi everyone, I came across a poem today by James Joyce, below is one passage of the poem All day I hear the noise of waters.

All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's
Monotone.

I'm a bit confused by the plural "waters", what does it mean here? I looked up my dictionary and find several meanings, but I'm not sure which one fits this. Or it just stands for something flowing (a symbol of "mind") here?

Many thanks.

[catatonic]

Maybe he liked the sibilance at the end of the line, grammar be damned. That would be my guess.

[JBI]

Waters and water are sort of interchangeable - when you are personifying the water here, as making moans, it works better to use the plural - so a sailor would say something like, "These are rough waters" whereas water as a singular refers to water in general, the plural refers to a part of the whole, a section, that is moaning. Notice the switch to the singular - that is because he is talking about a general thing - water in general, whereas before, by personifying the water, he made it plural - just a weird English convention I guess.

[mortalterror]

That would be a poem from Joyce's Chamber Music. Since he claimed that the title was a pun about urinating against the side of a chamber pot, the use of words such as waters, moan, and going may have hidden ribald connotations.

[dolon]

can anyone help me with ullyses i have read it and have certain understanding problems in some places..........thank you

[ed_shaw]

I might think that could be the sound of the sea.