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Poems

'His writing is not about something; it is that something itself' Samuel Beckett

James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist has often overshadowed his achievements as a poet, yet his verse occupies a pivotal position in his career. This new edition comprises all the poetry that was published in Joyce's lifetime, including his highly accomplished 1907 debut Chamber Music, which fused exuberant lyricism with sharp irony, and the later collection Pomes Penyeach, which confronted adultery, jealousy and betrayal. Also included here are the satirical poems ‘The Holy Office’ and ‘Gas from a Burner’, and ‘Ecce Puer’, written for his new-born grandson.

With a new introduction and notes by Clare Hutton.

About James Joyce

James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882, the eldest of ten children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. He was nonetheless educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University College, Dublin, and displayed considerable academic and literary ability. Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much of the subject matter for all of his fiction. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). James Joyce died in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.
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