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.

 


 
 
 
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.