Date:Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:56:50 -0300
Reply-To:Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From:jansymello <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:[NABOKOV-L] [Thoughts] Pale Fire:swing,gauze,ornithology.
Content-Type:multipart/alternative;
Inspired by the discussion on paperclips, gauze, birds I selected a few recurrent themes or words (gauze,clip,swing,shagbark,phantom,ghost,shadow,shade) to place them closer for comparison.
In the poem related to the swing hanging underneath the shagbark tree, instead of a mockingbird on a TV antenna and its call, there is a cardinal on the shagbark calling "chip-wit".
Shade's parents were ornithologists and John Shade finds himself "most artistically caged", probably inside a papered birdcage.
Noisy tires and car lights are related to the annoucement of Hazel's death but also to a beau's arrival to take her to a ball all wrapped in "gauze", similar to "a veil of blue amorous gauze" that imitates the sky ( an imitation, like the blue reflection that deceived the waxwing) and the gauzy mockingbird. The TV adverts also suggested dancing gauzinesses...
Nevertheless, I still cannot see Hazel as a mockingbird, except if playing the part of a poor imitation, mime, shapeless pale fire, distorted mirror reflection of a Sybil (hirondelle) - but Shade informs us that she resembled him ( waxwing). Still, she must have resembled Sybil at some point.
Hazel would not rise gracefully as a phantom, John Shade writes in relation to the shagbark. Sybil Shade's shadow can be seen, though.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kinbote on Shade's poem "The Swing":
The setting sun that lights the tips
Of TV's giant paperclips
Upon the roof;
The shadow of the doorknob that
At sundown is a baseball bat
Upon the door;
The cardinal that likes to sit
And make chip-wit, chip-wit, chip-wit
Upon the tree;
The empty little swing that swings
Under the tree: these are the things
That break my heart.
.....................................
Shade:
White butterflies turn lavender as they
Pass through its shade* where gently seems to sway
The phantom of my little daughter's swing.
........................................ (shagbark,hickory,sacred tree)*
...................... ...................
.........................................
60 ........................................
TV's huge paperclip now shines instead
Of the stiff vane so often visited
By the naïve, the gauzy mockingbird
Retelling all the programs she had heard;
Switching from chippo-chippo to a clear
To-wee, to-wee; then rasping out: come here,
Come here, come herrr'; flirting her tail aloft,
......................................................
.......................................................
70 Returning to her perch - the new TV.
Kinbote (Line 57): Shade crossed out lightly the following lines in the draft:
The phantom of my little daughter's swing [...]
The light is good; the reading lamps, long-necked;
All doors have keys. Your modern architect
Is in collusion with psychanalysts:
When planning parents' bedrooms, he insists
On lockless doors so that, when looking back,
The future patient of the future quack
May find, all set for him, the Primal Scene.
Kinbote ( line 92) The image of those old-fashioned horrors strangely haunted our poet. I have clipped from a newspaper..
Mountain View
Between the mountain and the eye
The spirit of the distance draws
A veil of blue amorous gauze,
The very texture of the sky.
Shade:
331 ... with a great
Screeching of tires on gravel, to the gate
Out of the lacquered night, a white-scarfed beau
Would never come for her; she'd never go,
A dream of gauze and jasmine, to that dance.
......................................................
on favourite Shagbark: I knew there would be nothing: no self-styled
Spirit would touch a keyboard of dry wood
650 To rap out her pet name; no phantom would
Rise gracefully to welcome you and me
In the dark garden, near the shagbark tree.
Where are you? In the garden. I can see
990 Part of your shadow near the shagbark tree.
...............................................................
Kinbote on Shade's short poems
note line 49 (shagbark)
The Sacred Tree
The ginkgo leaf, in golden hue, when shed,
A muscat grape,
Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,
In shape.
............................................................
note 347 (nature of electricity)
.......
Streetlamps are numbered, and maybe
Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine
(So brightly beaming through a tree
So green) is an old friend of mine.
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