POETRY since 1912

Long and loud
To night’s nave upsoaring,
A star-knell tolls—
As the bleak incense surges, cloud on cloud,
Voidward from the adoring
Waste of souls.

—James Joyce, Poetry, May 1917

Above, James Joyce’s drawing of Leopold Bloom. Open Culture explains:

After his seventh eye operation on December 5, 1925, according to Gordon Bowker in James Joyce: A New Biography, Joyce was “unable to see lights, suffering continual pain from the operation, weeping oceans of tears, highly nervous, and unable to think straight. He was now dependent on kind people to see him across the road and hail taxis for him. All day, he lay on a couch in a state of complete depression, wanting to work but quite unable to do so.”

3 months ago

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    This frustration of wanting to work but incapable reminds me of my dear mother.

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    How sad and beautiful the way he describes starlight with sound imagery since he couldn’t rely on his sight anymore.

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