Miss Kennedy served two gentlemen with tankards of cool stout. She passed a remark. It was indeed, first gentleman said, beautiful weather. They drank cool stout. Did she know where the lord lieutenant was going? And heard steelhoofs ringhoof ring. No, she couldn’t say. But it would be in the paper. O, she needn’t trouble. No trouble. She waved about her outspread Independent, searching, the lord lieutenant, her pinnacles of hair slowmoving, lord lieuten. Too much trouble, first gentleman said. O, not in the least. Way he looked that. Lord lieutenant. Gold by bronze heard iron steel. (222)

The “musical devices” which attempt to imitate musical form in words described in the Bloomsday book each rely on patterns. While I don’t have specialized musical knowledge to name those patterns in music theory terms, I can illustrate underlying patterns of repetition, phonetic-acoustic manipulation, echo, phrasing, and naming. By naming, I mean how one word can come to refer to another object beyond its lexical meaning, have that name repeated as a symbol, and recombine with other words to make new meanings.

This is the case with “tankard” in the first line. “Tankards”, the large glasses with stout, will later refer not to the glass but to the gentlemen. “Miss Mina Kennedy brought near her lips to ear of tankardone” shows that tankardone even distinguishes the first gentleman from the second ‘tankardtwo’ (236). This process might be similar to how certain closely spaced notes form an acoustic word that later re-enters the melody attached to new sounds, if notes are akin to phonemes.

But to look closer at repetition, it is useful to split the theme in two: repetition within this paragraph and repetition outside the paragraph of words as in the paragraph.

Within the paragraph, repeated words/phrases are: cool, stout, gentleman, (cool stout), lord lieutenant, hoof, ring, trouble, steel. The “cool stout” attaches itself with tankard as a reference to the two gentlemen. Cool stout becomes tankard becomes gentleman — “They drank cool stout.” “And heard steelhoofs ringhoof ring” sets up a:

A B C B C

pattern that feels like a musical progression: dah, duh, deh, duh, deh. It echoes.

The repetition of “trouble” is also an echo: “trouble, first gentleman said.” ”… trouble. No trouble” mimics the C-B-C pattern of “ringhoof ring.” “Lord lieutenant” echoes in the same manner, but also does something more interesting. “hair slowmoving, lord lieuten” — here ‘lieutenant’ is shortened to ‘lieuten’ (something we’ve recognized in Ulysses ‘Elijah com.’) It’s as if the last note has been dropped.

Repetition within the entire chapter is a more daunting task (and one that can’t be fully addressed here). Yet, we recognize phrases which are repeated in this paragraph. Most notable are those of metal: gold, bronze, steel, iron. The first line of this chapter reads: “BRONZE BY GOLD HEARD THE HOOFIRONS, STEELYRINING.” The paragraph ends with this line’s beginning: “Bronze by gold heard…” ‘Hoof’ is also associated to ‘steel’ as in “steelhoofs ringhoof ring.” Both gold and bronze go on to refer to the barmaids. Gold’s pinnacle hair will be a repeated phrase. Here’s a sampling of repeated phrases whose origin lies in the first pages of the chapter:

“Gold pinnacled hair.” (210)

“Bronze by gold, Miss Douce’s head by Miss Kennedy’s head, over the crossblind of the Ormond bar heard the viceregal hoofs go by, ringing steel.” (211)

“Bronzelydia by Minagold.” (211)

“By bronze, by gold, in oceangreen of shadow. Bloom. Old Bloom.” (211)

“Where bronze from anear? Where gold from afar? Where hoofs?” (211)

“Yes, bronze from anear, by gold from afar, heard steel from anear, hoofs ring from afar, and heard steelhoofs ringhoof ringsteel.” (212)

While the sentences are each unique, they are constructed by several blocks and associated words - hoof, steel, ring; by gold. They are elements through which Joyce composes the chapter text. By identifying the elements, patterns emerge which then could be classified as musical.