The Sirens Sweetly Singing ....

It's now about 4 p.m., and while Bloom sits in the bar at the Ormond Hotel, Blazes Boylan is well on his way to his tryst with Molly. Everyone knows the story of the Sirens, the sweet-singing temptresses whose irresistible song lures sailors to their doom by causing them to crash their ships on the nearby rocks. Odysseus, of course, has his cake and eats it too, by filling his sailors' ears with wax and tying himself to the mast; that is, Odysseus hears the Sirens' song, but withstands the temptation toward destruction the song invites. Simply put, this chapter is about music. There are 157 references to 47 different pieces of music. After spending five months exploring musical composition, Joyce - a great singer and music lover in his own right - said he could no longer enjoy music, as he now knows all the "little tricks" of musical composition. The section begins with an "overture" of sorts, each fragment reappearing later in the chapter. Look for musical references throughout: for example, at one point Simon sings a song about Lionel while Leopold listens, and the three (singer-subject-listener) fuse into a three-note chord, "Siopold!" (276). "The Croppy Boy" plays a significant role in the chapter - here are the lyrics: http://www.james-joyce-music.com/song16_lyrics.html. In one sense, this chapter involves the Ulyssean Bloom heroically resisting the call of the Sirens, which here becomes the temptation to wallow in overly sentimental (and paralyzing) nostalgia, as evidenced by the drunken men who have surrendered to alcohol, singing, and weeping: "Thrill now. Pity they feel. To wipe away a tear for martyrs. For all things dying, want to, dying to, die" (286). Ultimately, Joyce himself (as he does so often in this novel) bursts the bubble of self-importance by having Bloom conclude the chapter with his own anal trumpet!