AAFTER US In this poem, the poet uses a surplus of imagery to allow the reader to fully see what she is trying to get us to picture. In the first line, she talks about how rain, which can be destructive or helpful, is seeping into a room where books and other material things reside. In the lines to follow, she writes about how everything that flourished under the sun, turned away to try and find the light that they so desperately need. This shows the destructive side to rain because it paints the picture of a dark day with rain falling and silencing all activities that happen during the day. In the second paragraph, the poet writes about a portrait, which has sketches of boats and barns and this creates the image of a perfect utopia where everything is peaceful and nothing has disturbed it. The paragraph that follows this peaceful picture, is where the foreboding and evil rain begins to make its appearance again. She writes about how everything that was ever thought of or invented or t...
FFINNEGANS WAKE
Book 1
Like the cycles of history adapted by James Joyce from the ideas of Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), Finnegans Wake is divided into four parts or books. Book 1 begins midsentence in the middle of a dream by a Dublin tavern keeper, or publican, who is apparently (and appropriately) named Porter. The tavern keeper and his family sleep above his pub in the suburb of Chapelizod. It is near Phoenix Park, a large park that lies just north of the river Liffey. During the night as his dreams unfold, Porter morphs into many different characters, primarily Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker or other variations of the initials HCE, such as Here Comes Everybody.
In the dream world God announces "the Fall" with a crack of thunder. The Fall represents the fall of giants of religion and mythology. They include Irish hero-warrior Finn MacCool and Tim Finnegan, subject of the popular street ballad called "Finnegan's Wake." Earwicker has his own fall, a fall from grace like Adam. Early in the book readers learn of an indiscretion by Earwicker. He has apparently exposed himself to two young women in Phoenix Park, an incident apparently witnessed by three soldiers. The exact details of the incident are never clarified. However, after Earwicker unsuccessfully tries to explain what happened, the story takes a life of its own and even becomes a street ballad. Earwicker stands trial and is eventually imprisoned.
All the while, Earwicker's wife, Anna Livia Plurabelle, defends her husband in a mysterious letter, and she is a supporting voice heard during Earwicker's trials and tribulations. Just as Earwicker is the subject of scorn, Anna is the revered source of love and forgiveness.
Book 2
A world of puns, historical figures, folktales and fables, lists of books, and multilingual wordplay swirls about Earwicker's dreamland as the dynamics of Earwicker's family play out in Book 2. As the disgraced father figure, Earwicker comes under attack by his quarrelsome sons, Shem and Shaun, who fight over which of the two will inherit the right to deliver the Word of Christianity and civilization. The sons, in effect, are two halves of their father: Shaun is strong-willed and aggressive, while Shem is weaker, sensitive, and artistic. As the outcry over their father's reputed indiscretions grows, Shaun and Shem collect the pieces of their father's power and influence and move the dream world forward into the age of humans.
The boys study the academic disciplines needed to lead civilization, and they physically battle. Shaun is the stronger of the two and belittles Shem's weakness and artistic sensibilities. There is also a growing sense of attraction to their sister, who may be in the incestuous dreams of their father as well.
Things come to a head as Earwicker fails to control disrespectful patrons in his pub. The voices of his sons can be heard on the tavern's radio and television relating the story of an Irishman who hesitates shooting an indisposed Russian general during the Crimean War (1853–56), a tale with Freudian implications for a father who has two scheming sons. (The Crimean War was fought between Russia on one side and the Ottoman Turks, France, and Britain on the other side.) Earwicker once more attempts to defend himself against the rumors of his crime. He fails and ends up drunk on the tavern floor. In a following dream sequence, he appears in the story of a king who watches his knight, his son Shaun, steal away with his intended, his daughter.
Book 3
In Book 3 Earwicker's sons continue to squabble among themselves. Shaun recasts the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper to lampoon the intuitive and frivolous life of the artist. In the fable Shem, the "Gracehoper," is forced to admit that his brother's path is more responsible, but he asks if he doesn't deserve credit for creating art.
Shaun is able to vanquish his brother and tries to deliver the Word of civilization. But while Shem is the artist, Shem the Penman, Shaun is the Post or postman and can only deliver the news. He makes a shambles of his delivery as he floats down the river preaching from an empty beer barrel. Both boys realize neither one of them alone can replace their father. The sons' animosity exhausts them, chaos reigns, and the voice of Earwicker is heard. It is time for the gods to return.
Book 4
As the two brothers reconcile, the dreaming publican has become the sleeping giant of Dublin in Book 4, soon to reawaken as Finn. Lying beside him, his wife begins her own dreaming soliloquy. Anna Livia Plurabelle is a nurturing life force, but she is old and will give way to her daughter. With love and understanding, she flows softly though the city in the form of the river Liffey on her way to the sea. Her final thoughts end midsentence, with the words completing the sentence to be found in the first sentence of the novel.
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