The poetry-verse distinction reconsidered

Abstract

In this ‘epiphany’, the name the young James Joyce gave to short prose observations of ‘a sudden spiritual manifestation’ that surfaces in everyday life,2 the author and O’Mahony discuss a ‘little priest’, Fr Russell. Whilst Joyce initially corrects O’Mahony’s description of the priest’s verse writings, the epiphany subsequently shows them build up a shared connivance, embodied in O’Mahony’s ‘adroit’ smile. The ‘little priest’ is continually, remorselessly belittled: his profession given the indignity of lower case, his person the object of aloof disinterest from