James Joyce's book of poems titled Chamber Music was released by Elkin Mathews in May 1907. There were originally thirty-four love poems in the anthology, but two more were added before it was published ("All day I hear the noise of waters" and "I hear an army charging upon the land"). Although it is widely believed that the title refers to the sound of urine tinkling in a chamber pot, this is a later Joycean embellishment that gives an earthiness to a title that was initially proposed by his brother Stanislaus and that Joyce (by the time of publication) had come to dislike: "The reason I dislike Chamber Music as a title is that it is too complacent," he admitted to Arthur Symons in 1906. "I would prefer a title that criticized the work while avoiding outright trashing it." Chamber Music's poetry isn't at all racy or evocative of the sound of tinkling urine, in fact. The poems were well-received by critics despite poor sales (less than half of the original print run of 500 had been sold in the first year).
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was a Irish novelist, poet, and learned critic. James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland on 2 February 1882. He was the eldest son of John Stanislaus Joyce and Marry Murray Joyce. From the age of six, Joyce was educated by Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, at Clane, and then at Belvedere College in Dublin (1893-97). In 1898, he admitted in the University College, Dublin. Joyce's first printing was an essay on Ibsen's play When We Dead Awaken. After graduation Joyce went to Paris, where he worked as a journalist, teacher and in other jobs under tough financial conditions. He left Dublin in 1904 with Nora Barnacle, a maidservant who he married in 1931. One of the most powerful and innovative writers of the 20th century, James Joyce was the author of the short story compilation Dubliners (1914) and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). His compilations of poetry include Chamber Music (1907) and Pomes Penyeach (1927). His landmark book, Ulysses, is often renowned as one of the finest novels ever written. His investigation of language and new literary forms showed not only his genius as a writer but generate a fresh approach for novelists. He expired at the age of 59 on 13 January 1941, at the Schwesternhause von Roten Kreuz Hospital.
