TRACK #16: Discussion | Lyrics | About the Composer • • • JUMP TO CD #2 »
From CD #1:
The Croppy Boy
Words by Carroll Malone;
air: Cailín Óg a Stór
Liner Notes
One of the major musical themes running through Ulysses, this song gathers many large issues — Ireland's tortured political history, Roman Catholicism, divided loyalty, betrayal, and Christ-like self-sacrifice — into one bundle, ripe for Joyce's elaboration. The song dates to the rebellion of 1798; like their hoped-for French allies, the most ardent Irish revolutionaries wore their hair short (i.e., cropped ) in emulation of the virtuous republican Romans. Stephen Dedalus shares a similarity with the song's protagonist by failing to pray for his mother, even on her deathbed: this thought will come back to haunt him, literally, at the climax of the Circe chapter.
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Kevin McDermott]
[This page is still under development.]