At the beginning of Sirens the bar seems empty except for the barmaids and (briefly) the young "boots." After a long while people familiar from earlier chapters start trickling in. During this long prologue, the chapter affords brief glimpses of Leopold Bloom making his way west along the quays from the bookshop where he was last seen in Wandering Rocks, moving in the general direction of the Ormond Hotel—but with no apparent intention of going there. These narrative fragments repeatedly intrude on the main story just as the intrusions in Wandering Rocks did (i.e., they show things happening in different places at the same time), until finally Bloom is standing outside the Ormond and decides to enter the restaurant and have dinner with Richie Goulding. The long stretches of time between them create the impression of a man moving slowly and aimlessly.

Twenty short paragraphs after the overture, the narrative spots Bloom on Wellington Quay, about two blocks east of the Grattan Bridge. He is carrying the pornographic Sweets of Sin that he bought in the bookshop for Molly: "Bloowho went by by Moulang's pipes bearing in his breast the sweets of sin, by Wine's antiques, in memory bearing sweet sinful words, by Carroll's dusky battered plate, for Raoul." The 1904 Thom's directory supplies addresses for these three businesses: Daniel Moulang, "jeweller and pipe importer," had a shop at 31 Wellington Quay, while Bernard Wine's, an "antique and jewellery store," was at 35 Wellington Quay, and John Carroll, "watchmaker and jeweller and dealer in old plate," was at 29 Wellington Quay. The order in which the three shops are presented is peculiar: not Wine, Moulang, Carroll as it should be, but Moulang, Wine, Carroll. Some commentators have speculated that this inversion is deliberate, meant to suggest some kind of quasi-musical effect, but it is quite possible that (despite having Thom's in front of him) Joyce simply made a mistake.

Forty-two short paragraphs later, Bloom reappears just a little farther west: "Bloowhose dark eye read Aaron Figatner's name. Why do I always think Figather? Gathering figs, I think. And Prosper Lore's huguenot name. By Bassi's blessed virgins Bloom's dark eyes went by." Aaron Figatner was a "jeweller, diamond setter, &c." at 26 Wellington Quay, Prosper Loré was a "wholesale hat manufacturer" at 22 Wellington Quay, and Aurelio Bassi was a "statue and picture-frame maker" at 14 Wellington Quay. The order here is correct. Between the second address and the third Bloom has entered the final block of Wellington Quay. (Past the bridge it becomes the Essex Quay.)

Fourteen paragraphs later, Bloom is still in the same block: "By Cantwell's offices roved Greaseabloom, by Ceppi's virgins, bright of their oils.... On. Where eat? The Clarence, Dolphin." Cantwell and McDonald, "wholesale wine and whiskey merchants and rectifying distillers," had offices at 12 Wellington Quay. Peter Ceppi & Sons, "picture frame and looking glass factory and statuary makers," was at 8-9 Wellington Quay. Bloom is getting hungry, and he considers having a meal either in the Clarence Commercial Hotel at 6-7 Wellington Quay, quite close to the bridge, or in the Dolphin Hotel at 46-48 Essex Street, one block south, which he could get to via Parliament Street.

But neither of these things happens. Instead, twenty-five paragraphs later, Bloom decides to visit a shop on the north side of the river to buy some stationery: "Mr Bloom reached Essex bridge. Yes, Mr Bloom crossed bridge of Yessex. To Martha I must write. Buy paper. Daly's. Girl there civil." Teresa Daly, tobacconist, was at 1 Ormond Quay Upper, just west of the bridge and not far east of the Ormond Hotel at number 8. For centuries the bridge that Bloom crosses here was known as the Essex Bridge, but in 1874, after a remodeling, it was renamed the Grattan Bridge.

Forty-four paragraphs later still, Bloom is in the tobacconist's shop. Standing inside its front door on the north side of the river, he looks south and sees Blazes Boylan on a jaunting car crossing the same bridge that he has just walked over: "Two sheets cream vellum paper one reserve two envelopes when I was in Wisdom Hely's wise Bloom in Daly's Henry Flower bought.... Wise Bloom eyed on the door a poster, a swaying mermaid smoking mid nice waves. Smoke mermaids, coolest whiff of all. Hair streaming: lovelorn. For some man. For Raoul. He eyed and saw afar on Essex bridge a gay hat riding on a jaunting car. It is. Third time. Coincidence. / Jingling on supple rubbers it jaunted from the bridge to Ormond quay. Follow. Risk it. Go quick. At four. Near now. Out." The carriage turns left onto Ormond Quay Upper, and Bloom, aware that the time is nearly 4:00, decides to follow it.

This time the narrative stays with Bloom for a short while, tracking his thoughts through five brief paragraphs, but then it returns to the barmaids in the Ormond hotel, who now have the company of Simon Dedalus (trying out the piano in the saloon), Pat the waiter (collecting a bottle of beer for a customer in the restaurant), and Lenehan (waiting for Boylan). Boylan walks into the bar, and, after eighteen more intervening paragraphs, Bloom appears again, now just outside the bar: "Between the car and window, warily walking, went Bloom, unconquered hero. See me he might. The seat he sat on: warm. Black wary hecat walked towards Richie Goulding's legal bag, lifted aloft, saluting." He sees that Boylan has gone into the bar and left the cab waiting, then talks to Richie Goulding and decides to join him in the "Diningroom. Sit tight there. See, not be seen. I think I'll join you. Come on. Richie led on. Bloom followed bag. Dinner fit for a prince."

The extended montage created by cutting repeatedly between the action in the bar and Bloom's walk along the quays employs the technique used in Wandering Rocks, but here the effect is quite different. Instead of showing unrelated things happening in different parts of town—most of the intrusions in the tenth chapter are connected to the scenes surrounding them by slight thematic similarities, but they are otherwise completely extraneous—now Joyce creates two geographically and dramatically converging lines of action. Bloom's surpassingly strange decision to follow and spy on the man who is about to have sex with his wife happens only near the end of his brief journey, and quite spontaneously, but the narrative dogging of his movements makes it seem almost inevitable. Repeated mentions of The Sweets of Sin show Bloom preoccupied with thoughts of the adultery, and his feet seem to be magnetically drawn on a course that will maximize his pain.

There is growing unease in this narrative juxtaposition, and also a sense of drawn-out, apprehensive delay. Many, many paragraphs elapse between Bloom's various brief appearances—by my count 20, 42, 14, 25, 44, and 18. Most of these paragraphs are quite short, and I have not timed conversations to see whether their duration might realistically match the time it would take a man to cover the corresponding distances at a normal walking pace, but surely most readers will form the impression that Bloom is taking a long time to traverse a fairly short distance. This impression coheres with the sense of aimless wandering gained from tracking his steps in Lotus Eaters, and also the effect of the dilatory path that he takes to Barney Kiernan's at the end of Sirens. Quite unlike the brisk, confidently purposeful movements of Blazes Boylan in the novel, Bloom's feel halting, aimless, evasive.

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John Hunt 2025