Lucia Joyce was the daughter of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce. Her story is fascinating and tragic. I wrote this bit of a poem after reading a fictionalised biography, The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs and checking more details in Richard Ellmann's James Joyce and online. Some explanatory notes follow the poem.
Lucia
Lucia Joyce the die was cast
A jealous mother a doting Babbo
Mia bella bambina.
In dance she could fly, pirouette
and forget her squinting eye, forget
her love’s unrequited passions
lost like dear Samuel Beckett, her one
true love, never mind the others
she was besotted with Sam
but Sam was besotted with Jim
the genius of James Joyce
it bound him like the song of sirens
those sounds calling down the wine
dark seas to lure and entice
to tempt and truss a tender soul.
Jim loved to watch his child at dance
‘Father dear’ she called him fondly
so innocent and pretty she was
so gifted with a genius for dance
and choreography, ‘transfigured’
according to Jim as he was
transfixed but he perceived envy
and jealousy in Nora his wife
and Lucia understood that as
she recognised her Babbo to
be fixated by Nora’s raw ripe
rose with kisses intoxicated,
her hull appeased of barnacle
abandonment in Abaddon
what had it all meant? So long ago.
I have been confined to the
nuthouse these thirty five years.
Not long to go. I have The Sight.
Visits from Babbo were many.
Dead now he amuses the
Congregation of Immortals with
his chat his rambles of the tongue
if ever they understand him
We held our own language you see
not a fellow could follow ha ha.
He visited one time with Georgio
‘Che bello’ I screamed, my brother
departed in haste. I had told
him that his secret was safe, yet
he and mia madre prosecuted
my permanent interment, silenced
in this loony bin. Babbo fought it, his
own sanity sanctorum dolorum.
He died my Babbo. His words
his salve to my condition muted.
How I miss him. Not long now. No.
Some notes:
Italian was Lucia's first language thus 'Babbo' - Dad, 'mia bella bambina' - 'my beautiful child' 'Che bello' - 'How beautiful'.
She also spoke French and German and her English had a 'guttural European' accent, 'not the Irish lilt.' Her photos are plentiful but show a serious face apart from one or two. Yet she was described as having a humorous side with a great wit, her father's daughter.
She was a very talented dancer. The Paris Times reviewing a performance stated "Lucia Joyce is her father’s daughter. She has James Joyce’s enthusiasm, energy, and a not-yet-determined amount of his genius. When she reaches her full capacity for rhythmic dancing, James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father."
Lucia had her father's blue eyes but with a slight cast/squint. She had operations to remove it, to no avail. This may well have had a psychological effect, in fact she was psychoanalysed by Carl Jung for her depression, prior to admission to a series of mental asylums where she remained until her death in 1983. His notes were later destroyed. Why indeed?
Sadly her letters to and from her family were all burned by her nephew, brother Georgio's son, Stephen Joyce. Some incriminating words? Also her letters from Samuel Beckett.
Nora Barnacle’s ‘blue’ love letters to Jim, (to keep him from the Dublin brothels - theory) were also destroyed. Jim’s erotic letters to Nora are available online and are quite explicit, ‘steamy’ is a euphemism. A recent article proposes that his later medical problems were caused by syphilis, a reminder to him of his ‘iniquities’.
Samuel Beckett donated proceeds from one of his publications in support of Lucia's
hospitalisation.
He visited her once at St Andrew's Northumberland and maintained written communication with her until her death in 1982 on the eve of St Lucia's Day.
A picture of Lucia in her mermaid's costume which she designed and made for an international dance competition, was found in his personal possessions after he died.
There has been suggestion of incest in the Joyce family (contested by some scholars), possibly between Georgio and the younger Lucia, which may be why her letters were destroyed by Georgio's son.
There is a YouTube of James Joyce reading a section from Finnegan's Wake in a thick Irish accent. It is a wonderful insight to his rhythmic language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8kFqiv8Vww
The biographer of Nora, Brenda Maddox and the biographer of Lucia, Carol Shloss battle it out in the press
https://arlindo-correia.com/lucia_joyce.html
