Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0013822, Wed, 1 Nov 2006 11:49:43 -0800

Subject
Re: "Pale Fire" poem (quality of)
Date
Body
I've been rereading the Pale Fire poem for the umpteenth time with ever
renewed
pleasure. We know that VN had high regard for the poem--although it has little
in common with the great bulk of his verse. Further, there is always an
element
of individual tastes in poetry. N. was obviously trying to recreate a
"classic"
English style with a whiff of Frost. If Pope isn't your cuppa of tea you
probably won't care for the poem. For the role in the book as a whole,
it often
stunning. Don Johnson





uoting NABOKV-L <NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU>:

> Charles said:
>
>> I was mainly hoping to provoke a discussion on whether Pale Fire, the
> poem, can truly be accepted as "poetry".
>
> Charles,
>
> I'm not sure that the distinction between "well-crafted verse" and
> "poetry"
> is any distinction at all.
> One can argue whether or not a poem is good, but you seem to be saying
> that
> in order for
> something to be called a poem at all, it must be a great work of art.
> By
> this logic, there is no
> such thing as a bad poem, since the terms are mutually exclusive.
>
> As for the particular merits of "PF"--and here I speak as a poet
> myself--I
> find much of it profoundly
> impressive and deeply felt. I'm not alone in this assessment. Nabokov
> himself seemed to think it
> was pretty good, as he gave at least one reading of it to a public
> audience. More recently, the
> well-respected literary journal Fence reprinted Canto One. Fence's
> editor,
> Rebecca Wolff, writes
> the following in her "Editor's Note": "Herewith...you will find Canto I
> of
> Vladimir Nabokov's virtuousic
> foray into deep metapathos, "Pale Fire," from the novel of the same
> name:
> as (over)determined
> a contraption as ever was. That so much genuine emotion could be
> generated
> by such a well-
> oiled machine continues to please me even after I have paid $100 to
> Random
> House for the
> privilege of reprinting it for you here." (7.1, Spring/Summer 2004)
>
> Best,
> Matthew Roth
>
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