APPROACHING HOOFBEATS: TROUBLED DESTINY IN "I HEAR AN ARMY"
In "I Hear An Army" by James Joyce, the poet is jarred awake by a nightmare in which an army of black-clad charioteers rides full-tilt out of the sea towards him. He feels threatened. Is this a nightmare of personal calamity, provoked by anxiety over the loss of a loved one ("my love, why have you left me alone")? Betrayal is a theme in many of Joyce's writings, and Joyce could be expressing his fear of being abandoned by his wife for another lover. Or is the nightmare a political prophecy of World War I? The poem was written in 1904, about ten years before "the Great War" began. In the years preceding the war, there was already sabre-rattling amongst the European military powers which alarmed citizens of all Western countries. Joyce could be drawing a parallel in this poem between the old Roman legions (with their chariots) and the armies preparing to fight in the First World War. Both Rome then and Germany in the early 20th century wanted to conquer Europe. The reference to "horses" in the poem is appropriate since horses were still being used at times in World War I to lead a battle charge. At the end of Joyce's autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written just prior to the war, he again mentions his dream being disturbed by "the sound of hoofs upon the road", and "the silence is cloven by alarm as by an arrow" (A Portrait 251). His prophecy of crisis came true since Joyce himself became a refugee of the war, having to move his family from Italy to neutral Switzerland when war broke out.
In this poem, Joyce, as the poet-dreamer, feels terrified by the war. When he cries out, "My love . . . why have you left me/ alone?" the "love" he addresses, in this case, may be civilization in general (poets, after all, are in love with the world) which has abandoned its sanity for the sake of war.
Rampaging charioteers, and thunder and lightning ("a blinding flame") conjure up visions of the end of the world as depicted in the Book of Revelation (also known as Apocalypse) in The New Testament. Apocalypse means "revelation" and this biblical book is a prophecy of the final day of judgment when good people will be saved and wicked people destroyed, Satan will be overthrown (at least for 10,000 years), and the city of God in the new world will be established. Revelation describes how the angels of the Lord open up the gates to "the bottomless pit" and unleash "an army of two hundred thousand thousand horsemen" (Rev. 9:16-17) to slay all the sinners of the world (who number one-third of humanity). Like the horsemen in Joyce's poem, they are menacing in appearance: they wear "breastplates of fire" and their horses snort out fire, smoke, and brimstone which kills people. But these horrifying horsemen who have been vomited forth from the "pit" only destroy evil people, and therefore their ultimate purpose is noble. In contrast, it is hard to guess at the purpose of the demonic army in Joyce's poem, though at first glance they seem only intent on inciting mayhem and terror. Joyce could be suggesting that the imminent world war could be as destructive as the one depicted in Revelation (but without good people saved). In this case, when he says, "My love . . . why have you left me/ alone?" he could be imploring God (his ultimate love) to rescue him and the rest of humanity from the forces of destruction.
Still another interpretation could be that Joyce was fearful for his own spiritual salvation. He was, afterall, a heretic, a man who had renounced the Catholic Church and its dogma. When he was young, his aunt told him that thunder and lightning were God's warning to sinners to repent of their sins or suffer eternal damnation. Despite his break from the Church, Joyce remained afraid of thunderstorms throughout his life. The thunder in this poem, depicted in the form of the thundering hooves of horsemen (coming to slay sinners?) could be frightening him and making him "despair" of his own salvation.
Many of the words in the poem are demonic or ominous, predicting death and destruction. Horses are sometimes associated with demons since "witches [and even the devil himself] can easily change into horses" (Jung 277). Horses are also associated with death. Death often appears on horseback. For example, in Revelation 6:8 Death is depicted as riding a horse, and Charon (in Greek mythology), who transports people to the region of death, sometimes rides a horse. Blackness (in "black armor", "night", and "gloom") is a color associated in the Bible with evil. The word "night" itself portends doom. The Bible says that "the day of the Lord [the day of judgment and doom] comes like a thief in the night" (Thessalonians 1, 5:2). Death itself is sometimes depicted as a grinning skeleton - - hence, the "whirling laughter" of the horsemen.
Some words with traditionally positive associations have negative associations in this poem. For example, the fact that the horsemen come out of the sea is ironic. The sea usually has a positive association since it is the cradle of life. In this poem, however, the sea, instead of giving life, delivers the forces of death. "Anvil" too is ironic since anvils have a positive association with "beating swords into plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4) - - changing the tools of war into those of peace and fertility. Here, however, the anvil is associated with war, and the beating upon it with the clock of doom ticking in the poet's frightened heart. "Green" too usually has a positive association with water, vegetation, and thus life. But in this poem it seems evil. That the charioteers' hair is green is bizarre and nightmarish: their hair is the colour of seaweed or serpents. Joyce may have had in mind the horses of the Apocalypse whose tails were like serpents (Rev. 9:19), and serpents, of course, are associated with Satan. The charioteers' "long hair" is a symbol of strength (ex. Samson's long hair) but also suggests that these horsemen are unkempt, uncivilized, obeying bestial instincts.
This vision of this army occurs to the dreamer like "a blinding flame". Flames are associated with light, and light with truth. Therefore, a "blinding" flame, the brightest light of all, might be God's Truth (almost too powerful for man to behold). Though described as "blinding", it paradoxically gives the dreamer insight into his own destiny or the destiny of mankind. Perhaps through the dream, God is warning him to repent of his sins, or warning him of the imminent world war, or even of the final day of judgment. Conversely, the dreamer may be "blinded" in the sense of "confused" by the dream, and wonders if he is bereft of the "wisdom" to understand and thereby overcome his nightmarish vision. In either case, what he has seen is so powerful that he feels hopeless and forlorn. "Flame" also has negative associations with war, death, and the fires of hell, and in this sense is appropriate to this army of demonic charioteers.
There is an implied contrast in the poem between tender human love and harsh, inhumane militancy. Also, between wisdom and ignorance (represented by the unbridled forces of war). Wisdom speaks in words; ignorance is rough and inarticulate, "shouting" and laughing. Wisdom is restrained, in control; while ignorance is unbridled: "disdaining the reins . . . the charioteers."
Joyce's words are well chosen, not only for their connotations, but for their etymological meanings as well. "Wisdom" is derived from the Latin word videre meaning "to see", wisdom being associated with insight. The poet wants the insight of wisdom so he won't be "blinded" by the "blinding flame." It's interesting to note that "clanging" is a cognate of "laughter", both derived from a Latin word meaning "(an animal's) loud cry". This is appropriate for the bestial or coarse meaning these words have in the poem. The word "triumph" is derived from a Greek word meaning "march music" or walking "triple time", appropriate to the militant "charging" of the horsemen.
If you try replacing words in the poem with their synonyms, you will see that Joyce's choice of words is perfect. For example, "clanging" (line 11) is better than "beating" since "clang" has the shrill ring of metal banging upon an anvil, and it continues the alliteration of "cl" along with "cleave". "Proud" would not be as good as "arrogant" (in line 4) since "arrogance" means overbearing or excessive pride, and thus has the desired negative connotation.
The poem opens with the words "I hear" showing that sound is important in this poem. You can overhear the thunder of the horses' hooves and the battle cries of the horsemen. A recurrent (though irregular) iambic beat (an accented followed by an unaccented beat) gallops through the poem, imitating the galloping hooves of the horses and the frantically beating heart of the dreamer:
u / u / u / u u / u /
I hear an army charging upon the land . . .
u / u / u / u / u /
They cry unto the night their battle name . . .
u / u / u / u / u /
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame . . .
u / u / u / u / u / u
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me
u /
Alone?
The trochee "clanging, clanging" also imitates the incessant, nerve-wracking pounding in the poet's brain and heart.
The assonance of long vowels ("clanging", "blinding", "flame", "cleave", "green", "sea") imitates a prolonged cry of pain from the person suffering the nightmare, or imitates the shrill battle cries of the horsemen. Also, the long "~" assonance in "reins", "name", "flame", and "clang" sounds like metal banging upon an anvil. The assonance of the low base sounds in "thunder", "foam", "gloom", "come", "run", and "moan" sounds like the deep low thunder of an army of galloping hooves or a person moaning in his nightmarish sleep. The plosive consonance of hard "c" in "cry", "cleave", "clanging", "clanging" cuts through the poem like horsemen piercing his peace. Another plosive consonance occurs in "black", "battle", "blind": it too has a cutting, piercing effect. The only yielding consonance occurs in "whips" and "whirling", imitating the unrestrained movement of the whips and the unabated laughter of the horsemen as they strike terror in those around them.
Onomatopoeic words are important here since they put you into the middle of the nightmare where you can hear the sound of the army and the anxiety of the dreamer. In addition to "clanging" and "thunder", whose onomatopoeic value has already been explained, are the words "whip" and "fluttering". "Whip" begins with a yielding consonant "w" just like a whip whirling unimpeded through the air, and ends with a sudden snap of the "p".
"Fluttering" too is onomatopoeic since the consonants "f", "t", and "r" break up the word, making it flap irregularly.
The repetition of "my love, my love, my love" imitates the fast pounding heartbeat of the nightmare victim as well as emphasizing his earnestness. Other effective repetitions are "clanging, clanging" and the word "they" in "They cry", "They cleave", "They come". These repetitions enhance the military rhythm of the pounding hooves. The repeated words begin their lines for maximum impact. The inverted sentence "Arrogant, in black armor, behind them stand,/ Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the/ charioteers" is effective in suspending the meaning till the end of the sentence. This is appropriate for a nightmare in which mystery and suspense are protracted. The last word in the poem is "alone" on a line by itself, providing a feeling of utter desolation.
WORKS CITED
Joyce, James. Collected Poems. New York: Viking Press, 1946.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Markham: Penguin Books, 1977.
Jung, Carl. Symbols of Transformation. New York: Bollingen, 1956.
Revelation. The New Testament (King James Version).