Dubliners

by James Joyce

It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer

My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why)

Here the noise of trams, the lights and the crowd released them from their silence.

Sometimes, however, he courted the causes of his fear. He chose the darkest and narrowest streets and, as he walked boldly forward, the silence that was spread about his footsteps troubled him, the wandering, silent figures troubled him; and at times a sound of low fugitive laughter made him tremble like a leaf.

He was not sure what idea he wished to express but the thought that a poetic moment had touched him took life within him like an infant hope.

“Why is it that words like these seem to me so dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?”