At That Hour (Poem Review)

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At that Hour

by James Joyce

At that hour when all things have repose,
O lonely watcher of the skies,
Do you hear the night wind and the sighs
Of harps playing unto Love to unclose
The pale gates of sunrise?

When all things repose, do you alone
Awake to hear the sweet harps play
To Love before him on his way,
And the night wind answering in antiphon
Till night is overgone?

Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
Whose way in heaven is aglow
At that hour when soft lights come and go,
Soft sweet music in the air above
And in the earth below.

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James Joyce poetry is known for vivid and atmospheric imagery and this one more than meets Joyce’s reputation-based expectations.

The poem is structured into three five line stanzas, with a rhyme scheme of ABBAB CDDCC EFFEF. Substantively, the poem is an address to the moon, regarding the quiet longing for love during the night.

Stanza One:

At that hour when all things have repose,
O lonely watcher of the skies,
Do you hear the night wind and the sighs
Of harps playing unto Love to unclose
The pale gates of sunrise?

In the night, while everyone is sleeping, the Speaker asks the moon (“the lonely watcher”) whether he/she hears the night wind and the “love harps” sighing for night to end and for day to begin again. You can imagine here a scenario wherein someone is parted from the one he loves until the following day and can hardly bear the separation.

Joyce equates that sense of longing with the music of harps, adding sound to the visual imagery he created in his address to the moon. This is brilliantly done. If the moon is personified, why should it not also have something to hear? If the moon is lonely, why should the sounds at night not be the beautiful sounds made from separation and longing? Joyce completes the picture by describing sunrise as a pale gate. The longing is not forever. There is a tangible barrier that will soon be lifted (or opened.)

Stanza Two:

When all things repose, do you alone
Awake to hear the sweet harps play
To Love before him on his way,
And the night wind answering in antiphon
Till night is overgone?

First, I want to provide a definition for “antiphon” as I suspect that is not a word which is widely known and understood:

antiphon /ăn′tə-fŏn″/

noun

1. A devotional composition sung responsively as part of a liturgy.
2. A short liturgical text chanted or sung responsively preceding or following a psalm, psalm verse, or canticle.
3. Such a text formerly used as a response but now rendered independently.

This stanza builds on the previous one, and adds upon the nature of Love. Joyce consistently capitalizes Love. In so doing, he personifies the word by treating it as a name or a title Through the metaphor of harp music and the word “antiphon” we can surmise that the “sighs” of Love, described through the metaphor of harp music, is more than mere romantic love. There is a spiritual weight to what the Speaker describes.

Joyce is not clear on the specifics, but we might infer that “him on his way” is the sun, or perhaps even God. Him on his way might also be the human lover longed for by those sighing in the night. The Speaker describes the moon as a lonely watcher, or listener. It is unclear to what degree if any the night wind, or the harp music, is from the moon. In any case, the atmosphere set by the description is one of beauty, longing, and waiting- though not forever.

Stanza Three:

Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
Whose way in heaven is aglow
At that hour when soft lights come and go,
Soft sweet music in the air above
And in the earth below.

Rather than bringing a resolution to the situation, the third stanza deepens the visual and auditory imagery and then leaves us there. The Speaker commands the music to play on, unto Love. We are told that “heaven is aglow” which conjures a sky filled with stars for the imagination of the reader. The Speaker joins the air above and the earth below in the oft-described music as the poem ends.

You can read into that a spiritual longing for God (or perhaps Jesus) to appear or reappear in the world, with the earth (a stand-in for humanity, or creation more generally), shrouded in darkness, lovingly awaiting that moment. The metaphor of harps, the characterization of Love as a man, and the description above of “antiphon” makes that a plausible reading. We can also read into it something less specific – perhaps a deep romantic love, felt so powerfully by the Speaker that he imbues it with spiritual significance.

The brilliance of Joyce is that the imagery is simultaneously powerful, but vague, giving the Reader an opportunity to project themselves into it.

At That Hour is the third poem found within James Joyce’s first poetry collection, ‘Chamber Music.’ The intention of Joyce was that the poems in the collection could be set to music and sung. Knowing that, it is not surprising to see musical motifs within the piece.

I recommend looking into the music, described in the video above.