Subject
BIRTHDAY: Poem
From
Date
Body
I wanted to write something specifically for VN's birthday, but of
course
haven't found the time. Instead, I'll offer a poem that isn't about VN,
but
steals from John Shade's first line of Canto Three and also nods to the
original title of VN's revised memoir (Speak, Mnemosyne). Perhaps there
is
also a shadow of John Shade's lines about passing on his looks to Hazel
("She might have been you, me, or some quaint blend").
Matt Roth
---------------------------------------------
The Quiet One
To be not small but merely here
as a letter lost in a long word
larded with odd alliances—
where words hide all their silences.
To be the M in Mnemosyne, seen
but not heard, like a rich man's ward,
or the fat forgotten wife
of a long-remembered bard.
Better yet to be the silent e that makes
the small i speak its name and brings
l’if (O yew) to life. That was my way
until one day a child, looking
half like me, traced my form
with his finger, a child’s game,
and guiltless, smiling,
spoke my name.
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course
haven't found the time. Instead, I'll offer a poem that isn't about VN,
but
steals from John Shade's first line of Canto Three and also nods to the
original title of VN's revised memoir (Speak, Mnemosyne). Perhaps there
is
also a shadow of John Shade's lines about passing on his looks to Hazel
("She might have been you, me, or some quaint blend").
Matt Roth
---------------------------------------------
The Quiet One
To be not small but merely here
as a letter lost in a long word
larded with odd alliances—
where words hide all their silences.
To be the M in Mnemosyne, seen
but not heard, like a rich man's ward,
or the fat forgotten wife
of a long-remembered bard.
Better yet to be the silent e that makes
the small i speak its name and brings
l’if (O yew) to life. That was my way
until one day a child, looking
half like me, traced my form
with his finger, a child’s game,
and guiltless, smiling,
spoke my name.
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/