This week’s top Irish poem is a short but sad poem. The death of James Joyce’s father and the birth of his grandson sparked James Joyce’s return to poetry. 
The poem “Ecce Puer” is literally translated to “Behold the Young Boy”. It celebrates the birth of Joyce’s grandson, Stephen James Joyce, in February 1932.
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Ecce Puer
James Joyce – 1882-1941
Of the dark past
A child is born;
With joy and grief
My heart is torn.
Calm in his cradle
The living lies.
May love and mercy
Unclose his eyes!
Young life is breathed
On the glass;
The world that was not
Comes to pass.
A child is sleeping:
An old man gone.
O, father forsaken,
Forgive your son!
Ecce Puer: meaning and analysis
James Joyce, best known for Ulysses, also wrote poetry, and ‘Ecce Puer’ is his most moving poem. He wrote it in 1932, after his grandson Stephen was born on 15 February, just weeks after Joyce’s father, John Stanislaus Joyce, died in Dublin on 29 December 1931.
What it means
The title is Latin for ‘Behold the boy’, an echo of ‘Ecce Homo’ (‘Behold the man’), Pilate’s words about Christ. In four short stanzas Joyce sets new life against death: a child sleeps in his cradle while an old man has gone. The last lines are a plea for forgiveness from a son to his father, whom Joyce had not visited in Ireland for many years. It is one of the most personal things he ever wrote.
Key themes
- Birth and death
- Fathers and sons
- Grief and guilt
More Irish poems
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