Yes, and "lady" is actually very common in pop songs ("Lay lady lay" etc. etc.). And I had no idea what her objection to "flee" was all about. As for "heart's demolished core," Don, your comment about sums it up, thanks for it. And that's an intriguing parallel between Joyce's early work and Dante's; it's the second time this week I've heard those two authors compared. Joyce liked deflating the "Daunty, Gouty, and Shopkeeper" literary racket, but as one critic said
It is true, as Mr. Joyce's admirers insist, that the greatest classics of literature are very difficult of comprehension; but the difficulty is in the thought content and not in the word construction. The three writers whom Mr. Joyce refers to in this book as "Daunty, Gouty and Shopkeeper" (Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare), all used the simplest means to express themselves.
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