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THOUGHTS: Beau & Butterfly
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In PF, Ada, and LATH, VN mentions the New York magazine The Beau and the Butterfly, a reference to the cover art of The New Yorker. This is well-known. But until recently I assumed that VN had made up the title himself. I now see that he may have been referencing a fable, a version of which you can see here ( http://books.google.com/books?id=Ed0GAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PP10&ots=yfhYEWW8r5&dq=%22beau%20and%20the%20butterfly%22%20-nabokov&pg=PA206#v=onepage&q=%22beau%20and%20the%20butterfly%22%20-nabokov&f=false ).
The poem explores the tensions between nature and art, the given and the made, vanity and wisdom. If VN knew it, he might have detected, in the mirror, a glimpse of T. S. Eliot in the line "In toilet-arts consumes the day."
Matt Roth
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The poem explores the tensions between nature and art, the given and the made, vanity and wisdom. If VN knew it, he might have detected, in the mirror, a glimpse of T. S. Eliot in the line "In toilet-arts consumes the day."
Matt Roth
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/