‘I Hear an Army’
James Joyce
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
VOCABULARY
Arrogant - proud, with a sense of being superior
Disdaining - considering something unworthy of time or attention - in this case, the
‘reins’ of the horses are not worth bothering about
Charioteers - people who ride chariots - two-wheeled vehicles where a rider stands
and is pulled forwards by horses
Unto - into
Afar - far away
Cleave - cut in two
Anvil - a metal block used in forging iron and steel - the blacksmith uses a hammer
to beat heated metal into specific shapes, laying the metal against the anvil
Triumph - victory
Thus - like that
, STORY/SUMMARY
Stanza 1: I hear an army charging forwards on the land, the horse's foam around their
knees and make a noise like thunder as they charge forwards: The charioteers driving
the horses to stand behind them, arrogant in black armour, with fluttering whips that
they use to beat the horses, ignoring the horses’ reins.
Stanza 2: They cry their battle names into the night: I moan in my sleep when I hear
their whirling laughter far away. They cut through the gloom of my dreams, like a
blinding flame, clanging, clanging on the heart as if it was being beaten upon an anvil.
Stanza 3: They come shaking their long, green hair in victory: They come out of the sea
and run shouting by the beach. My heart, don’t you have any knowledge that makes
you feel like this? My love, my love, my love, why have you abandoned me?
SPEAKER/VOICE
The speaker in the poem is plagued by a nightmare of war, he sees a vision of
charioteers charging forwards with horses; these men are ‘arrogant’ and dressed in
‘black’, possibly symbols of other men that have come to compete with him over the
beloved, or perhaps manifestations of his raw and volatile emotions.
LANGUAGE DEVICES
Imagery - surreal images are blended together to create the nightmarish atmosphere
of the poem. The ‘thunder of the horses’ - a metaphor which evokes the sound of
charging hooves - and the men who ‘cleave the gloom of dreams’ with ‘a blinding
flame’ convey a visceral battle scene full of destruction. Joyce was afraid of
thunderstorms since he was a little child, which is perhaps why he includes them in his
apocalyptic vision.
