# Death — Poetry character guide

> Death in Poetry by James Joyce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Death

**First appearance:** 0036-xxxvi-i-hear-an-army-charging-upon-the-land

## Snapshot

A quiet presence in the later poems, felt in winter at the door and in waters that moan all day and all night.

## Who they are

Death enters Joyce's poems less as a figure than as a season: winter crying at the door in 'Sleep Now,' grey winds blowing where the narrator goes, and the noise of many waters flowing to and fro. The tension is between the kiss that promises peace and the voice that says 'Sleep no more.' Death matters because it gives the closing arc its hush — the love poems end not with triumph but with a lullaby that knows what it is singing toward.

## In the story

### [XV: From Dewy Dreams, My Soul, Arise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xv-from-dewy-dreams-my-soul-arise)

Mentioned alongside love as a state of slumber.

### [XXVIII: Gentle Lady, Do Not Sing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxviii-gentle-lady-do-not-sing)

Implied through the grave and the long deep sleep of lovers.

### [Sleep Now, O Sleep Now](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxxiv-sleep-now-o-sleep-now)

Associated with winter's cry and the final sleep invoked in the poem.

### [XXXVI: I Hear an Army Charging Upon the Land](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxxvi-i-hear-an-army-charging-upon-the-land)

Implied presence through the army's charging and the dream's ominous tone.

### [Pomes Penyeach](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/pomes-penyeach)

Personified as a presence in poems dealing with mortality and sleep.

### [She Weeps Over Rahoon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/she-weeps-over-rahoon)

Implied presence through the cold, dark imagery of the grave.

### [Nightpiece](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/nightpiece)

Implied through the starknell tolling and the 'waste of souls' adoring in voidward incense.

### [A Prayer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/a-prayer)

Implied through imagery of 'cold touch,' 'doom,' and the draining of life.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters/death
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters