Short Story Criticism | Araby, James Joyce - Donald E. Morse (essay date 1978)

Donald E. Morse (essay date 1978)

SOURCE: “‘Sing Three Songs of Araby’: Theme and Allusion in Joyce's ‘Araby,’” in College Literature, Vol. 5, No. 2, Spring, 1978, pp. 125–32.

[In the following essay, Morse explores the different literary allusions found in “Araby.”]

I’ll sing three songs of Araby
And tales of fair Cashmere,
Wild tales to cheat thee of a sigh,
Or charm thee to a tear
And dreams of delight shall on thee break,
And rainbow visions rise,
And all my soul shall strive to wake
Sweet wonder in thine eyes.
And all my soul shall strive to wake
Sweet wonder in thine eyes.

—W. G. Wills, “Araby”¹

Adults enjoy being reminded, at a safe distance, of their own successful voyage through the rites of passage; for time first blunts, then obscures, the pain of being rejected by the first usually inappropriate and always unapproachable love. Many of the excesses committed in the name of...

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