"All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters" read by James Joyce
Here's a vitual reading of an exquisite little poem that's likely to leave you with the sound of running water in your minds ear "All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters" The poem was written by James Joyce in 1907. .
"All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters" is the 35th poem out of a set of 36 that made up Joyce's first published work (Chamber Music 1907) It was this book that got him into the Imagist Anthology and so earned him the support of Eliot and Pound who publicized his later works. he poem is about the noise water and wind make. The poem appears to take place near a lake or ocean. There is a large use of onomatopoeia in this poem. For example, in lines 1 - 2 the poem states, "All day I hear the noise of waters / Making moan" causes the reader to hear a noise the water is making. In addition to the water, James Joyce gives the wind noise in lines 5 -- 6 with, "He hears the winds cry to the waters' / Monotone" causes the reader to hear the noise of the wind with the water which to me sounds like a long drawn out yawn. In the first stanza there are three instances of alliteration. These alliterations occur on line two with "Making moans," on line three with, "Sad as the sea-bird is," and lastly on line 5 with, "He hears." In addition to alliteration, there are also several instances of assonance. For example, on lines 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 have a similar pattern of using the o vowel with; "Making moan," "Forth alone," "Monotone," "the cold winds are blowing," "Where I go," "Far below," "To and fro." In addition to the o vowel's use of assonance in the poem, the a vowel is used in lines 1, 3, 5, 9, 11 with; "All day I hear the noise of waters," "Sad as the sea-bird is," "He hears the winds cry to the waters'," "I hear the noise of many waters," "All day, all night, I hear them flowing."
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 -- 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominently the stream of consciousness technique he perfected. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His complete oeuvre includes three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism, and his published letters.
All rights are reserved on this audiorecording copyright Jim Clark 2012
All day I hear the noise of waters
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
He hears the winds cry to the water's
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.