Paragraph 3· Free preview
“Won't you come to Sandymount, Madeline the mare?”
Plain English translation
Stephen becomes absorbed in the rhythm of a snatch of song and analyses it as poetry. Still reluctant to open his eyes, he wonders whether the world might have ceased to exist while he wasn't looking at it, or whether he himself might have become blind. Finally, he opens his eyes and discovers that reality has continued unchanged. The world exists independently of his perception and will continue to exist long after him.
Sentence-by-sentence commentary
“Won't you come to Sandymount, Madeline the mare?”
Plain EnglishA fragment of a song or jingle about a horse called Madeline coming to Sandymount.
Stephen recalls or invents this line. Its exact origin is uncertain, but he is primarily interested in its sound and rhythm rather than its meaning.
“Rhythm begins, you see. I hear.”
Plain EnglishNow rhythm starts to emerge. I can hear it.
Stephen's attention shifts from philosophy to the musical qualities of language.
“A catalectic tetrameter of iambs marching.”
Plain EnglishIt's a poetic line made up of four iambic beats, with the final syllable omitted.
Stephen, ever the literary scholar, immediately analyses the phrase as poetry. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (da-DUM); a tetrameter has four metrical feet; catalectic means the final unstressed syllable is missing. He instinctively scans everyday speech as verse.
“No, agallop: deline the mare.”
Plain EnglishNo, the rhythm isn't a march—it's more like a horse galloping: 'deline the mare.'
Stephen revises his analysis. The rhythm evokes the sound of a horse's hooves rather than soldiers marching, and Joyce mimics the galloping rhythm in the phrase itself.
“Open your eyes now. I will. One moment.”
Plain EnglishI will—but just give me another moment.
A voice in Stephen's mind urges him to open his eyes; he hesitates before ending his experiment.
“Has all vanished since?”
Plain EnglishWhat if the world has disappeared while my eyes have been shut?
Stephen entertains a philosophical possibility: does the world continue to exist when he is not perceiving it? This echoes the idealist philosophy of George Berkeley, who argued that existence depends upon perception.
“If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane.”
Plain EnglishWhat if I open my eyes and find myself trapped forever in darkness?
'Adiaphane' means opaque or non-transparent. Stephen fears blindness—or, more broadly, the terrifying possibility that reality itself might vanish.
“Basta! I will see if I can see.”
Plain EnglishEnough! I'll open my eyes and find out.
'Basta!' is Italian for 'Enough!' or 'Stop!' Stephen abruptly ends his speculation.
“See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end.”
Plain EnglishLook—the world was there all along without needing you, and it will continue to exist forever.
Stephen discovers that the external world exists independently of his consciousness. The phrase 'world without end' echoes Christian liturgy, particularly the Gloria Patri ('world without end, Amen'), giving Stephen's realization a quasi-religious resonance.