An artist must create a personal cosmos, a verdant world in continuity with tradition, further fulfilling man’s “awareness,” his “degree of consciousness,” and bringing new subtilization, vision and beauty to the elements of experience. It is in this way that the Idea, powered by conviction and necessity, will create its own style, and the singular, momentous structure capable of realizing its intent.
“The twilight turns from amethyst
To deep and deeper blue,
The lamp fills with a pale green glow
The trees of the avenue.
The old piano plays an air,
Sedate and slow and gay;
She bends upon the yellow keys,
Her head inclines this way.
Shy thought and grave wide eyes and hands
That wander as they list —
The twilight turns to darker blue
With lights of amethyst.”
James Joyce | Chamber Music