Chamber Music is Joyce’s first published work (1907) and consists of 36 Elizabethan-like poems depicting the growth of a young poet’s love for a golden-haired woman. The volume’s themes range from the poet’s youthful idealised sentiment to the more mature experience of self-awareness, betrayal, failure and disenchantment. The feelings and emotions are evoked through sensuous natural imagery and powerful symbolism that pertain to the tradition of love poetry: the sounds of nature, melodies in the air, the “gates of sunrise”, an ominous moon, odorous winds, and even fairy choirs. The book, as the title suggests, is to be considered a set of songs rather than a collection of poems, as Joyce clearly stated in a letter …
1919 words
Citation: Sabatini, Federico. "Chamber Music". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6156, accessed 24 November 2024.]
