Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Péter Egri: (Per)chance: Joyce and Cage

The first line ("night by silentsailing night Isobel") is so short because Cage has cut out the second half of the original, allowing only the name of Isobel to stay. He has kept the Joycean sequence of words from "wildwood's eyes" to "lay sleeping," repeated "night" from the first line (or took it over from the thirteenth), and created a stylistic coda by the culminating and caressing repetitions of petting, elevating and sanctifying versions of Isobel's name collected and grouped from lines 1,5,7,9, 10 and 16. Thus abbreviated and reordered, the text suggests a quiet, calm and pure image, which emphasizes beauty by ending on "Belle." The words are also characterized by auditory awareness. It becomes evident in a number of ways. 1. Long-sounding, sonorous, slow and soft words are repeated. "Night" occurs in this short passage three times, the first echo coming very soon ("night by silentsailing night"). Its effect is semantically and musically increased by "evencalm." The phrase "wildwood's eyes" is soon reinforced by the group "all the woods so wild." The personal pronoun "me" is heard four times. "Belle" resounds the last syllable of "Isabelle." Reverberations of words culminate in the final addresses to "Isobel, sister Isobel, Saintette Isabelle, Madame Isa Veuve la Belle." 2. The lyric saturation of the text is also revealed by the poetic-musical effect of occasional rhymes ("night," "wild," "child" and even the first syllable of the compound "whitethorn" as well as "be" and "me"). 3. The functional quality of the auditory plane is quite obvious in the great number of overt and covert, initial or internal alliterations. They are so significant that they sometimes generate unusual, indeed new words and phrases, subordinating ordinary meaning and syntax to the epiphany of euphony: "silentsailing," "wildwood's," "woods so wild," mauves of moss," "daphnedews" (alluding to the mythical story of Apollo and Daphne), "so still," "/osthappy /eaf," "'twill be," "win me," "woo me," "wed me," "weary me," "sister Isobel" and "Saintette Isabelle (recalling, implying and intoning King Mark's and Tristram's passion for Iseult, evoking Iseult's love for Tristram, and hinting at HCE's ambiguous emotions for his daughter). 4. Auditory awareness is also apparent in rocking, lulling parallel phrases like "by silentsailing night," "all the woods so wild," "how all 70