What do the rhyming lines at the end of the excerpt contribute to the narrative? a portrait of the artist as a young man by james joyce (excerpt) the vances lived in number seven. they had a different father and mother. they were eileen’s father and mother. when they were grown up he was going to marry eileen. he hid under the table. his mother said: —o, stephen will apologise. dante said: —o, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes. pull out his eyes, apologise, apologise, pull out his eyes. apologise, pull out his eyes, pull out his eyes, apologies.