A collection of poems by James Joyce, published by Elkin Matthews in May, 1907. The collection originally comprised thirty-four love poems, but two further poems were added before publication ("All day I hear the noise of waters" and "I hear an army charging upon the land"). James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Seamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Although it is widely reported that the title refers to the sound of urine tinkling in a chamber pot, this is a later Joycean embellishment, lending an earthiness to a title first suggested by his brother Stanislaus and which Joyce (by the time of publication) had come to dislike: "The reason I dislike Chamber Music as a title is that it is too complacent," he admitted to Arthur Symons in 1906. "I should prefer a title which repudiated the book without altogether disparaging it."^[1] Stanislaus Joyce (December 17, 1884-June 16, 1955), teacher, scholar, and writer; brother of James Joyce. ... Arthur Symons (February 28, 1865 - January 22, 1945), was a British poet and critic. ...

Ellmann reports (from a 1949 conversation with Eva Joyce) that the chamberpot connotation has its origin in a visit he made, accompanied by Oliver Gogarty, to a young widow named Jenny in May 1904. The three of them drank porter while Joyce read manuscript versions of the poems aloud - and, at one point, Jenny retreated behind a screen to make use of a chamber pot. Gogarty commented, "There's a critic for you!". When Joyce later told this story to Stanislaus, his brother agreed that it was a "favourable omen".^[2] Richard Ellmann (March 15, 1918 - 1987) was a prominent literary critic and biographer of Irish writers such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. ... Oliver St John Gogarty (August 17, 1878-September 22, 1957) was an Irish physician and ear surgeon, who was also a poet and writer, one of the most prominent Dublin wits, and for some time a political figure of the Irish Free State. ...

In Ulysses, Leopold Bloom reflects, "Chamber music. Could make a pun on that."^[3] Ulysses is a 1922 novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from 1918 to 1920, and published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. ...

In fact, the poetry of Chamber Music is not in the least bawdy, nor reminiscent of the sound of tinkling urine. Although the poems did not sell well (fewer than half of the original print run of 500 had been sold in the first year), they received some critical acclaim. Ezra Pound admired the "delicate temperament" of these early poems,^[4] while Yeats described "I hear an army charging upon the land" as "a technical and emotional masterpiece".^[5] In 1909, Joyce wrote to his wife, "When I wrote [Chamber Music], I was a lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that one day a girl would love me."^[6] Ezra Pound in 1913. ... W.B. Yeats in Dublin on 24 January 1908. ...

Today, although the individual poems of Chamber Music are less frequently anthologised the later Pomes Penyeach, they continue to have - as Joyce hoped - an accessible lyricism which has led to a wide-ranging number of musical adaptations, including pieces by Robin Williamson, Syd Barrett, Martyn Bates of Eyeless in Gaza, and Jim O'Rourke and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth. Pomes Penyeach is a collection of thirteen short poems, written over a twenty-year period from 1904 to 1924 by the novelist James Joyce and originally published on 7th July 1927 by Shakespeare and Co. ... Robin Williamson (born 1943, Edinburgh) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician. ... Roger Keith Syd Barrett (January 6, 1946 – July 7, 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artist. ... Eyeless In Gaza is the post-punk musical duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker, based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England (better known as the birthplace of George Eliot). ... ORourke in Stockholm 2005 Jim ORourke (born 1969) is an American musician and producer. ... Steve Shelley is a drummer born 23 June 1963 in Midland, Michigan. ... Sonic Youth is a rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ...

Notes

1. ^ Ellmann, R. (Ed.), "Selected Letters of James Joyce", Faber, 1975, p.124
2. ^ Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce, Oxford University Press, 1959, revised edition 1983, p.154
3. ^ Joyce, J., "Ulysses", p.364, Bodley Head, 1960
4. ^ Ellmann, Richard, op. cit., p.479
5. ^ Ellmann, Richard, ibid. p. 391
6. ^ Ellmann, R. (Ed.), op. cit. p.161

Richard Ellmann (March 15, 1918 - 1987) was a prominent literary critic and biographer of Irish writers such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. ... James Joyce by Richard Ellmann was published in 1959. ...

External links

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