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Re: Keats & VN & other thoughts
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CHW offered us a list of poets VN respected ( among them Keats and Browning). In the first part of Lolita VN made a passing mention to Hopkins and often I hear of "dappled" clearings which might be related to this bespeckled alliterative rhythmic poet.
And yet, in ADA, his comment on "sprung rhythm" seemed rather mocking, but I found it difficult to judge since I cannot even imagine how Russian verse would sound in SR. Could you, CHW, or one among our List experts clarify ?
ADA: Mlle E...could not be relied on to take over from lagging Ada with a breezy account of her work on a new novella of her composition (her famous Diamond Necklace was in the last polishing stage) or with memories of Van’s early boyhood such as those eminently acceptable ones concerning his beloved Russian tutor, who gently courted Mlle L., wrote ‘decadent’ Russian verse in sprung rhythm, and drank, in Russian solitude.
Also in Pale Fire, while commenting on Goethe's poem (lines 653-664), Kinbote observes that:"one cannot sufficiently admire the ingenious way in which
Shade manages to transfer something of the broken rhythm of the ballad (a trisyllabic meter at heart) into his iambic verse". He then uses a punctuation that is vaguely suggestive of distorted Hopkins stresses ( & I hope I've been also vague enough to signal my ignorance on the subject)
662 Who rídes so láte in the níght and the wínd
663 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
664 . . . . Ít is the fáther wíth his chíld
Goethe's two lines opening the poem come out most exactly and beautifully,
with the bonus of an unexpected rhyme (also in French: vent-enfant), in my
own language:
Ret wóren ok spóz on nátt ut vétt?
Éto est vótchez ut míd ik détt.
How do you think did GMHopkins rate with VN?
Jansy
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
CHW:" By consulting the index to Brian Boyd’s indispensable VN, The American Years I was relieved to discover that Keats was that rarity, a poet and critic of poetry who had enjoyed what seems like VN’s unqualified affection. There are four index references to Keats, four to Coleridge, two to Wordsworth, fifteen to Shakespeare in general, plus 20 comments on specific plays."
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And yet, in ADA, his comment on "sprung rhythm" seemed rather mocking, but I found it difficult to judge since I cannot even imagine how Russian verse would sound in SR. Could you, CHW, or one among our List experts clarify ?
ADA: Mlle E...could not be relied on to take over from lagging Ada with a breezy account of her work on a new novella of her composition (her famous Diamond Necklace was in the last polishing stage) or with memories of Van’s early boyhood such as those eminently acceptable ones concerning his beloved Russian tutor, who gently courted Mlle L., wrote ‘decadent’ Russian verse in sprung rhythm, and drank, in Russian solitude.
Also in Pale Fire, while commenting on Goethe's poem (lines 653-664), Kinbote observes that:"one cannot sufficiently admire the ingenious way in which
Shade manages to transfer something of the broken rhythm of the ballad (a trisyllabic meter at heart) into his iambic verse". He then uses a punctuation that is vaguely suggestive of distorted Hopkins stresses ( & I hope I've been also vague enough to signal my ignorance on the subject)
662 Who rídes so láte in the níght and the wínd
663 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
664 . . . . Ít is the fáther wíth his chíld
Goethe's two lines opening the poem come out most exactly and beautifully,
with the bonus of an unexpected rhyme (also in French: vent-enfant), in my
own language:
Ret wóren ok spóz on nátt ut vétt?
Éto est vótchez ut míd ik détt.
How do you think did GMHopkins rate with VN?
Jansy
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
CHW:" By consulting the index to Brian Boyd’s indispensable VN, The American Years I was relieved to discover that Keats was that rarity, a poet and critic of poetry who had enjoyed what seems like VN’s unqualified affection. There are four index references to Keats, four to Coleridge, two to Wordsworth, fifteen to Shakespeare in general, plus 20 comments on specific plays."
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm