Joyce's poetry relates to the author's life and his other works, as well as the poems' relations to modernism as a whole and to specifically Irish modernity and the Irish revival. The essays treat issues of religion, philosophy, history, politics, and aesthetics, comparing Joyce to other Irish poets, other modernist poets, and poetic traditions ranging from the Elizabethans to the French Symbolists. They reveal how Joyce's poems provide entries into Joyce's most personal and intimate thoughts and ideas. They also demonstrate that Joyce's poetic explorations—of the nature of knowledge, of sexual intimacy, the changing quality of love, the relations between writing and music, and the religious dimensions of the human experience—were fundamental to his development as a writer of prose. Through careful analysis of the totality of Joyce's poetry—his early volume Chamber Music, his later volume Pomes Penyeach, his satires, his occasional verses, and his unpublished poetry—the book constitutes the first full study of Joyce's poetry, demonstrating the need to grapple with the poetry in order to have a full appreciation of Joyce's overall stature and achievement. |