by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
You have asked me what I would do and...
Language: English
You have asked me what I would do and what I would not do. I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile and cunning.
F. Rzewski sets lines 2-8
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1916, page 291.
Notes: Text is a prose selection. Line breaks added arbitrarily. Excerpt is a quote from Stephen.
Authorship
- by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, B. W. Huebsch, first published 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
- by Frederic Rzewski (b. 1938), "I Will Not Serve!", <<2013, lines 2-8 [ speaker, SATB chorus, instrumental ensemble ], from Ode to the Deserter, no. 1, Sound Pool Music (BMI) [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-10-20
Line count: 8
Word count: 91