“But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

—  James Joyce , book Dubliners

"Araby"
Dubliners (1914)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires." by James Joyce?
James Joyce photo
James Joyce 191
Irish novelist and poet 1882–1941

Related quotes

James Joyce photo
Quentin Crisp photo
Sylvia Plath photo

“I saw in it a thing
That scorned the grossness of the thing I wrote.
It hung upon my finger like a sting.”

Karl Shapiro (1913–2000) Poet, essayist

"Interludes" III, in From Darkness To Light : A Confession of Faith in the form of an Anthology (1956) edited by Victor Gollancz
Context: Writing, I crushed an insect with my nail
And thought nothing at all. A bit of wing
Caught my eye then, a gossamer so frail And exquisite, I saw in it a thing
That scorned the grossness of the thing I wrote.
It hung upon my finger like a sting.

Margaret Atwood photo
Kim Wilde photo

“Is our time up and on to the next fire / Got my fingers burnt and cut into the wire.”

Kim Wilde (1960) English pop singer

Shangri-la
Teases and Dares (1984)

Homér photo

“Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream.”

XI. 206–208 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus attempting to embrace his mother's spirit in the Underworld.
Compare Virgil, Aeneid, II. 792–793 (tr. C. Pitt):
: Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw;
Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

William Cowper photo

“While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.”

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 118.

Amit Chaudhuri photo
Bill Bailey photo

“What I'd like to do now - well, what I'd like to do now is grow my beard very long, weave it into my pubes and strum it like a harp.”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

Cosmic Jam (tour 1995, DVD 2005, 2006)

Related topics