To view more poems I have examined, click HERE.
Strings in the Earth and Air
by James Joyce
Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
There’s music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
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Strings in the Earth and Air is a 12 line poem, comprised of three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and (almost) with a rhyme scheme of ABAB in each stanza. Thee exception to the rhyming pattern is found line 5 and 7. (I like to imagine that Joyce really struggled over those two lines before deciding that he didn’t care if they rhymed after all.)
The poem is a very image-laden piece, tapping into the reader’s visual and auditory imagination for a scene form nature. Joyce also utilizes movement imagery (or kinesthetic imagery) to evoke the movement of the river and the flowers on the banks, bent and touching the water as it flows. Joyce describes these nature sounds as music and the interactions of the flowing water with the plant-life on its surface as love.
This pastoral scene from the poem is peaceful and conjures up an emotional feeling of contentment. The poem is a comment on the love that can be found in nature, and as a result, the poem is a comment on the nature of love itself, as well.
For a great review of the poem, I highly recommend the following video:
The poem has also been set to music many times. One example of this can be found below:
Beautiful poem!