Come, let us rejoice in James Joyce, in the greatness of this poet, <br /> king, and king of poets <br />For he is our poor dead king, he is the monarch and Caesar of English, <br /> he is the veritable King of the King's English <br /> <br /> The English of the life of the city, <br /> and the English of music; <br /> <br />Let them rejoice because he rejoiced and was joyous; <br />For his joy was superior, it was supreme, for it was accomplished <br />After the suffering of much evil, the evil of the torment of pride, <br />By the overcoming of disgust and despair by means of the confrontation of them <br />By the enduring of nausea, the supporting of exile, the drawing from <br /> the silence of exile, the pure arias of the <br /> hidden music of all things, all beings. <br />For the joy of Joyce was earned by the sweat of the bow of his mind <br /> by the tears of the agony of his heart; <br /> hence it was gained, mastered, and conquered, <br /> (hence it was not a gift and freely given, <br /> a mercy often granted to masters, <br /> as if they miraculous were natural -) <br />For he earned his joy and ours by the domination of evil by <br /> confrontation and the exorcism of language <br /> in all its powers of imitation and <br /> imagination and radiance and delight....<br /><br />Delmore Schwartz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/from-a-king-of-kings-a-king-among-the-kings/
