Mr Bloom’s glance travelled down the edge of the paper, scanning the deaths: Callan, Coleman, Dignam, Fawcett, Lowry, Naumann, Peake, what Peake is that? is it the chap was in Crosbie and Alleyne’s? no, Sexton, Urbright. Inked characters fast fading on the frayed breaking paper. Thanks to the Little Flower. Sadly missed. To the inexpressible grief of his. Aged 88 after a long and tedious illness. Month’s mind: Quinlan. On whose soul Sweet Jesus have mercy.
It is now a month since dear Henry fled To his home up above in the sky While his family weeps and mourns his loss Hoping some day to meet him on high.
I tore up the envelope? Yes. Where did I put her letter after I read it in the bath? He patted his waistcoatpocket. There all right. Dear Henry fled. Before my patience are exhausted.
National school. Meade’s yard. The hazard. Only two there now. Nodding. Full as a tick. Too much bone in their skulls. The other trotting round with a fare. An hour ago I was passing there. The jarvies raised their hats.
A pointsman’s back straightened itself upright suddenly against a tramway standard by Mr Bloom’s window. Couldn’t they invent something automatic so that the wheel itself much handier? Well but that fellow would lose his job then? Well but then another fellow would get a job making the new invention?
Antient concert rooms. Nothing on there. A man in a buff suit with a crape armlet. Not much grief there. Quarter mourning. People in law perhaps.
annotation:
St Andrews National School
In the first paragraph Joyce once again references the previous chapter, “Inked characters fast fading on the frayed breaking paper. Thanks to the Little Flower.” The two themes seem to me to be in almost constant conflict with each other, love and death.
the Hazzard
Bloom then sees various buildings as the carriage passes them. It was a bit difficult to understand what “National school. Meade’s yard. The hazard.” meant, but joyceproject.com cleared it up. National school refers to St. Andrew’s Boys’ and Girls’ National School, Meade’s yard is a contractor / sawmill business, and the hazard refers to the cabstand that he passed earlier that day. ( source )
I really identify with Bloom’s train of thought about the pointsman. It’s a fantastic example of the following a line of thought out to it’s logical conclusion, one way that Joyce steeps his writing so strongly in modernity.