Monday, March 17, 2014

A text for the day

James Joyce:

the more carrots you chop, the more turnips you slit, the more murphies you peel, the more onions you cry over, the more bullbeef you butch, the more mutton you crackerhack, the more potherbs you pound, the fiercer the fire and the longer your spoon and the harder you gruel with more grease to your elbow the merrier fumes your new Irish stew.

Finnegans Wake (1939)
A merry Saint Patrick’s Day to all.

[Leddy is an Irish name.]

comments: 4

The Crow said...

What are murphies?

Merry St. Paddy's to you, too.

Martha McLemore, aka The Crow

Michael Leddy said...

Potatoes, I guessed. But the OED confirms it.

The Crow said...

Thank you.

I subscribe to, among others, the Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day service. Today's was "St. Patrick's Day," by Jean Blewett.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/240288?

Sean said...

The meter, pacing, and selective alliteration literally gave me the physical impression of stirring (which left me quite stirred!)