Kate/Joyce

[snelson@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Steve Nelson)]

Kate Bush's albums are full of things that hint at literary references, but
I spotted something beyond coincidence.  Stepping off the page, indeed.

The first verse of her song "The Sensual World" has the lines:

...Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth
...He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes
   But now I've powers over a woman's body, yes

In the last chapter ("Penelope") of James Joyce's _Ulysses_ there's the
line:

"yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was
leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost
my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers
all a womans body yes that was the one true thing he said in his life..."

and also:

"and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I
put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a
red yes..."

There are other, more vague, correspondences, but the next really good one:

...And then he whispered would I, mmh, yes
   Be safe, mmh, yes, from mountain flowers?
   And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes,
   He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts
   He'd rescue it, mmh, yes,
   And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes,
   I said, mmh, yes
   But not yet, mmh, yes.

Compare to this:

"he asked me to say yes and I wouldn't answer first only looked out over
the sea..."

or, more to the point, the final lines of the chapter, and of _Ulysses_:

"and then he asked me would I yes to say yes and my mountain flower and
first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel
my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said
yes I said yes I will yes"

_Ulysses_, "Penelope", and "The Sensual World" end in the word "yes."

I'm pretty sure that there must be other references (Where is Howth Head?)
but Joyce is pretty rich material.  I wonder: when did Kate read Joyce?  (I
heard that she mentioned that she didn't read much in an interview.)  Are
there other literary references?
-- 
Steve Nelson
snelson@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~snelson/SteveSpace.html
"I am not a number, I'm a free man!"
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