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Letters To Nora (JAMES JOYCE)

Letters To Nora (JAMES JOYCE)

Late July 1904

60 Shelbourne Road, Dublin

My dear Nora I found myself sighing deeply tonight as I walked along and I thought of an old song written three hundred years ago by the English King Henry VIII—a brutal and lustful king. The song

is so sweet and fresh and seems to have come from such a simple grieving heart that I send it to you, hoping it may please you. It is strange from what muddy pools the angels call forth a spirit of

beauty. The words express very delicately and musically the vague and tired loneliness which I feel. It is a song written for the lute.

JIM

Song

(for music)

Ah, the sighs that come from my heart

They grieve me passing sore!

Sith I must from my love depart

Farewell, my joy, for evermore.

I was wont her to behold

And clasp in armes twain.

And now with sighes manifold

Farewell my joy and welcome pain!

Ah methinks that could I yet

(As would to God I might!)

There would no joy compare with it

Unto my heart to make it light.

Henry VIII

 

Letters To Nora

James Joyce

 

Image: http://www.frockflicks.com/wtf-the-tudors/



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