Norton's poem "The Arab's Farewell to His Horse" does not "shed light" on Joyce's story "Araby"; however it does have similar motifs of dreams and reality. In the story, the narrator's uncle is reminded of the poem when the boy states that he wants to go to the bazaar "Araby."
Both the poem and the story have narrators who must give up something they love. The speaker in the poem must say goodbye to his horse, which he misses terribly. "Thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!" Although we do not know why he sold a horse he loved so much, we do know that he regrets that decision. The narrator in the story must say goodbye to his illusion that he has a chance with Mangan's sister. A difference is that the man actually had possession of the horse before he made the decision to sell it. He still...
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considers himself to be its owner: "The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,—thy master hath his gold." The boy never actually had the girl; in fact, for quite some time, he only admired her from afar. "I had never spoken to her." By the end of the story, the boy is forced to give up his illusion that he will ever have a chance with the girl. When the bazaar closes and he still has not found a gift, he says, "I knew my stay was useless." He realizes he will never find anything to give Mangan's sister that will make her like him. He will remain just her little brother's friend.
Both narrators have dreams which cannot become reality. The man has sold his horse, but yet he continues to dream about it. He states that "only in sleep" can he see his beautiful horse. When he sleeps, he is once again able to ride the paths they traveled together in the past. When he awakens, he is faced with the cold, harsh reality that his beloved steed is not there. The boy also only has dreams to hold onto, and he must wake up at the end of the story. The reality is that Mangan's sister does not like him; if anything, she uses him to get a present. When they finally speak, she flirts with him, hinting that she'd like him to buy her something as "she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist." By the end of the story, he "turned away slowly," not wanting to give up his dream, but having to do so anyway.
I wouldn't say that the poem "sheds light" on Araby, but there is certainly a connection there. Obviously, lets start with the title. Arab - Araby. The importance to this in both poems is to call to mind the culture of the East, of far away places, exotic places. The boy in the poem has imagined the carnival to be such a place, exotic and alluring. "The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me."
Secondly, lets examine the mood of each. There is a wistful nostalgia and disappointment in both the poem and the story. Both speakers experience a loss. In the poem, it is the loss of a most beloved horse. The speaker says "Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bread prepare,/The silky mane I braided once, must be another's care." The horse is described in such a way that it seems larger than life. The same is true of the girl in Araby. The boy idolizes her so much that he puts her on a sort of holy pedastal. He says, "Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance."
However, just as the speaker must give up the horse, the boy is forced to give up his illusions of both Araby the carnival and, through that, the illusion of the girl. As he sees the petty trinkets and flash of Araby, and listens to the gossipy girl at the booth, he burns with "with anguish and anger."
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