What is a stream of conscious technique in poetry?
Stream of consciousness is common enough in poetry, but it is difficult to give an example of (a point I shall explain later). It is much easier to show it in prose. Here is an extract from James Joyce ‘Ulysses’ (Wandering Rocks section). A minor character – Father John Conmee – is walking across Dublin: …. Father Conmee crossed to Mountjoy square. He thought, but not for long, of soldiers and sailors, whose legs had been shot off by cannonballs, ending their days in some pauper ward, and of cardinal Wolsey’s words: If I had served my God as I have served my king He would not have abandoned me in my old days. He walked by the treeshade of sunnywinking leaves and towards him came the wife of Mr David Sheehy M. P. — Very well, indeed, father. And you father? Father Conmee was wonderfully well indeed. He would go to Buxton probably for the waters. And her boys, were they getting on well at Belvedere? Was that so? Father Conmee was very glad indeed to hear that. And Mr Sheehy himself? S
