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Re: "Pale Fire" poem (quality of)
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In a message dated 01/11/2006 20:02:54 GMT Standard Time,
chtodel@GSS.UCSB.EDU
Don Johnson wrote:
We know that VN had high regard for the poem--although it has little
in common with the great bulk of his verse. Further, there is always an
element
of individual tastes in poetry. N. was obviously trying to recreate a
"classic"
English style with a whiff of Frost. If Pope isn't your cuppa of tea you
probably won't care for the poem. For the role in the book as a whole,
it often
stunning.
I did read a comment that VN had said that composing Pale Fire the poem was
one of the most difficult things he had done; and I accept Matthew Roth's
statement that he gave a public reading of it once. However, did he actually say
that he had a high regard for it, as an original poetic composition he was
proud of? He doesn't strike me as someone who would ever say such a thing about
his own work. But I'm happy to be corrected.
Differences in taste are certainly, and traditionally, said be something not
open to discussion or dispute: not something I'm sure I entirely agree with.
I wouldn't say Shade's poem has anything much at all in common with Pope. On
the other hand I would say it strongly resembles Wordsworth's Prelude, with
more of a whiff of Edsel than of Frost. My impression is that these days
Wordsworth is more highly admired in America than in England. Most of my
contemporaries reading English when I was an undergraduate found it extremely
difficult to enthuse over much of Wordsworth. "Two voices are there ..." etc.
Personally I find The Prelude prosaic in long stretches, although it occasionally
rises above itself.
Shade's poem, and its quality, is obviously an absolutely crucial and
critical feature of VN's book. Perhaps one's whole understanding of the book hinges
on the poetic quality one attaches to the poem.
Charles Harrison-Wallace
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