Many years ago I was browsing in a bookshop, seeking to find a nice book of children's poems for my young sisters, when I came across a poem by James Joyce! The poem was called "Golden Hair." Could it by "The" James Joyce? It was a simple, straightforward (and beautiful) poem, unlike the incomprehensible novels such as Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.
The poem evoked an immediate echoe in me because of the line "My book is closed, I read no more ..." This brought a memory of my own.
When I was 14, I was told to write an Irish essay called, "Oiche Liom Fein i dTeach Uaigneach," ("A night by myself in a lonely house)". Stock response to such a request would be like "I was cycling along when I was taken by a thunderstorm and took refuge in a deserted house ..." Instead, I decided to write of an actual adventure (though only part and not the entire night). It was the month of November, and a giant Christmas Tree had been set up on Capel Street. My mother decided to take my younger sisters for a walk to see this great Tree. She wondered if I would like to come along, but I said I would stay and do my Homework instead. Now, My brother, Roger, was away with the Christian Brothers, and Jerry and my father were at work, so I was home alone.
Well, it was November, so soon the house began to go dark. Instead of switching on the lights, I closed my book and, as Joyce had said many years ago (unknown to me of course),
"My book is closed, I read no more,
Watching the fire dance on the floor.
There were other evocative poems in the collection of children's poems (whose title I have long forgotten), including a poem like one of my own that I had written, after a stormy night, at 15 year of age, the first stanza of which went as follows:
"The blasts are blowing wild;
Go shut the windows tight.
The whining winds and gushing gales
Are booming through the night.
They roar inside the chimney,
They rattle at the door.
They surge, up to a huge crescendo
And fall back down once more
The western winds are mad with fury
This wild and stormy night;
They groan and grieve among the trees;
Go shut the windows tight."
Well, in this poetry collection, I found an almost identical poem; so I must have read and forgotten this poem long ago and then imagined it as my own.
Well now: to come back to "Golden Hair." When Brother (Cornelius) Finn was tasked with finding material for "An Gael Og" magazine, he asked the boys to write such of our essays as had been marked as "very good " or "excellent," and my story of my Home Alone adventure was chosen as one of these. A couple of years later, my sister, Mary, was given the task of learning some text off by heart. Now, to learn something by heart, it is always a good idea to read it out loud. So, one afternoon, I heard my sister calling out something that sounded rather familiar. And, yes, there it was, my essay, as a story, written in the magazine, and now chosen by students to learn off. Wow!
So, for me, James Joyce's poem was evocative on many levels.
Of course, I followed this up by, eventually, looking up the rest of Joyce's poems. Regarded by the so-called experts as trivial, and described by the adult Joyce himself, in his title "Chamber Music" as the clatter of urine against a chamber pot, they are instead evocative of real youthful sentiments. Indeed, it is this collection of poems which made him famous, for one of these poems was selected by Ezra Pound in his selection of "Imagist Poems," which brought Joyce to Paris, where he was celebrated as the leader of the American (as yet unpublished) Authors living in Paris, and from whom Ulysses became publishable.
I find that can easily compose music to go with "Golden Hair," and other poems by James Joyce, and have, recorded this song in Youtube as follows:
Another childrens book by James Joyce that I added to my children's collection was "The Cat and the Devil," and this was enjoyed for years by my young siblings.
Of course the poem that made Joyce famous (via Ezra Pound) was "I hear an Army," and I have recorded my version of this also.
I recorded these before introducing myself to Yamaha (keyboard), so may well re-record both soon enough, in light of that technology.