[Alexandra Baez]

Perhaps if I had been forced to study it, I might think differently.

Well, I can’t claim that I was—it was an elective course, though I barely knew what I was getting into. Actually, we read it side-by-side with Homer’s Odyssey, so I was helped a lot by being thus alerted to the presence of parallels (however tenuous) between the two books. That and being able to discuss it weekly with our lively, intelligent professor and a small class of seven, plus getting college credits for it all, actually leavened the experience considerably for me (making it feel about more than just the book)!

The opening line is a reference to the (fairly famous, I think) opening sentence of the book: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a razor and a mirror lay crossed”.

Oh, yes--okay, not a new mystery. I remember that now, probably more from having heard it quoted before than from having read it in the book. So, here’s a good example of a place in your poem where specific knowledge of the book is quite important.

And the “from” in the lines

from inner organs, outhouse defecation,
from dodging biscuit tins to spilling seed
on twilit siren sands

just refers back to the previous line’s, “slog from crib to tomb”. They are all events in Bloom’s day that form part of this “slog”.

All right; what threw me here most was “inner organs,” which I wouldn’t call an “event,” and also, it’s a mite complicating that amid all the “-ing” ending verbs is the noun “defecation” instead of the more expectable “defecating.” But I do realize you’ve got meter and rhyme to consider.

I realise it’s a fairly niche endeavour.

Well, you certainly have discovered a big stretch of that niche here on the Sphere. To your credit, the poem carries a strong tang of the book, which a poem about a book probably ought to do, and which is an admirable feat in its own right.