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Re: from Ron Rosenbaum re "Pale Fire" & EDNote
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R.S.Gwynn ( to JM's "Hazel Shade can never function as an inspiring Muse"): "... Hazel, chaste daughter of god-like Shade and his constant memory, Sybil, may in fact fit the bill as an "odd versipel." Of course, his usual muse is Sybil, wearing overalls while she gardens. Whitman said that the American muse ought to be 'installed among the kitchenware'."
JM: If a muse in overalls repeats words over and over while the poet is composing in his mind, with no pen in hand, Shade's other muse, the versipel, is equally independent of pen and paper, for she remains with him everywhere. Nevertheless, the two processes ( although both belong to Shade's "method A") are completely distinct.
Would "versipel" serve to indicate Shade's dreamy musings while paring nails and considering a misprint?
Perhaps not since when, in parallel to "versipel," he mentions Sybil, he writes: "One heard a woman's dress/ Rustle in days of yore. I've often caught/ The sound and sense of your approaching thought" and I suppose he means that he carries his love for Sybil in his mind and soul* at all times - or else, he is identified with her (a feminine streak should he merely be reacting to the silken "liquefaction" of an ancient poem).**
Anyway, feeling inspired by Sybil is different from being insufflated by an ungainly daughter's "ghost"...
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* - Robert Frost's "countless silken ties of love and thought" ( The Silken Tent) and Robert Herrick's vibrating lines of yore ( Upon Julia's Clothes).
** - A third option would have Shade pointing to an American muse gardening away (as in R.S.Gwynn's vision of Sybil in overalls following Whitman's interesting definition).
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JM: If a muse in overalls repeats words over and over while the poet is composing in his mind, with no pen in hand, Shade's other muse, the versipel, is equally independent of pen and paper, for she remains with him everywhere. Nevertheless, the two processes ( although both belong to Shade's "method A") are completely distinct.
Would "versipel" serve to indicate Shade's dreamy musings while paring nails and considering a misprint?
Perhaps not since when, in parallel to "versipel," he mentions Sybil, he writes: "One heard a woman's dress/ Rustle in days of yore. I've often caught/ The sound and sense of your approaching thought" and I suppose he means that he carries his love for Sybil in his mind and soul* at all times - or else, he is identified with her (a feminine streak should he merely be reacting to the silken "liquefaction" of an ancient poem).**
Anyway, feeling inspired by Sybil is different from being insufflated by an ungainly daughter's "ghost"...
.........................................................................
* - Robert Frost's "countless silken ties of love and thought" ( The Silken Tent) and Robert Herrick's vibrating lines of yore ( Upon Julia's Clothes).
** - A third option would have Shade pointing to an American muse gardening away (as in R.S.Gwynn's vision of Sybil in overalls following Whitman's interesting definition).
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/