Fergus Rules the Brazen Cars (9 of 783)

And we're back. Might as well face it, writing about Ulysses every day is even more challenging than reading it every day. Heck, picking out the post title alone can consume 5 minutes or more. Tonight's was a no brainer. Though Sassenach do garner a few votes, there was something about Fergus that screamed "Page 9".

How's this for a seminal work. This book still has buzz, 80+ years after it came to be. Turns out I'm not the only idiot blogger reading this thing page-by-page. I can't find the link at the moment, but there is someone else out there.

For those of you reading vicariously through this blog (though bog might be the more appropriate term -- you silly gits), Kinch was offended by Buck's off hand remarks regarding his mother's demise. Buck has had enough of the conversation and retreats downstairs to cook breakfast, booming out a verse (poetry or song?) ....

And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love's bitter mystery
For Fergus rules the brazen cars.

Turns out Kinch was singing this song while his mother was dying, and she was crying for the words "love's bitter mystery".

There's some more color play between white and green on the sea, the "bowl of bitter waters." But what's the deal with this verse? Ah, it is a snatch from a Yeats' poem. Yeats is, I understand, an Irish author of some repute, but again my education, reading list and/or memory fail me and I cannot call to mind a single work.

The poem contains the line "White breast of the dim sea", which Kinch broods over, but he seems to brood over just about everything. As his mother is only recently beastly dead, we'll let him brood. As to the analysis of the poem -- that's outside the scope this blog for the moment.