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Re: THOUGHTS on two metaphors from Canto 4
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On Apr 29, 2010, at 10:37 AM, R S Gwynn wrote:
> In a message dated 4/28/2010 9:24:35 PM Central Daylight Time, glipon@INNERLEA.COM
> writes:
>>
>>>
>>>> Old Zembla’s fields
>>>
>>
>>
>> Why Old Zembla's fields are mentioned here also is difficult to
>> decipher. It's probably to be read as a sign of Kinbote's coming
>> emergence.
>>
>>
>>>> And slaves make hay between my mouth and nose.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Hay is made when grass or other plants, such as clover or alfalfa,
>> are cut and dried for fodder. The word Slaves presumably refers to
>> hair follicles that metaphorically grow the grass; technically,
>> splitting hairs I guess you could say, it is the razor that makes
>> the hay. So Shade is sloppy here too.
>
> What's even stranger is that this single mention of Zembla in
> Shade's poem is not commented on by Kinbote at all. After all his
> listening to chattering Kinbote, Shade can't be faulted for using
> one "Zembla" in his 999 lines, even if the "distant northern land"
> is here only the "country of [his] cheek."
>
> Shade has earlier told us, in his long (895-938) passage on how much
> he hates his daily shave (an ode to simply being alive) that he is
> "in the class of fussy bimanists" when it comes to wielding a
> razor. Thus, the "slaves [who] make hay between his mouth and nose"
> are his two hands.
Shade is about to become the, sadly, exiled King of all of Zembla!
He deserves more than two servant.
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