The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.
James JoyceRead
O cold ! O shivery ! It was your ambrosial beauty. Forget, forgive. Kismet. Let me off this once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the beauty and pain of love, suggesting a longing for forgiveness in the face of hardship.
In this passage, James Joyce conveys the tumultuous emotions associated with love, where beauty evokes deep feelings alongside discomfort. The plea for forgiveness indicates the complexity of relationships and the hope for understanding despite past struggles, represented here as 'kismet,' or fate's role in their experiences.
Themes
LoveBeautyForgivenessKismetEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
In a romantic speech at a wedding, one might quote this to emphasize the beauty and challenges of love.
More from James Joyce
All quotes βI think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
James JoyceRead
If he had smiled why would he have smiled? To reflect that each one who enters imagines himself to be the first to enter whereas he is always the last term of a preceding series even if the first term of a succeeding one, each imagining himself to be first, last, only and alone whereas he is neither first nor last nor only nor alone in a series originating in and repeated to infinity.
James JoyceRead
Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs about the end of love; Lay aside sadness and sing How love that passes is enough. Sing about the long deep sleep Of lovers that are dead, and how In the grave all love shall sleep: Love is aweary now.
James JoyceRead
I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.
James JoyceRead
The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside.
James JoyceRead
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Let him have the key of thy heart, who hath the lock of his own.
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Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.
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