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PF and Yeats (fwd)
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From: Jay Livingston <LIVINGSTON@saturn.montclair.edu>
Jeffrey Alexander wrote: "Did Nabokov himself know the poem by Yeats? Is
the reference deliberate or accidental?"
This is the crucial question, no? I would have guessed coincidence.
Regardless
of how Shade is using it in the poem, Nabokov is using it in the novel to
allude
to what Kinbote will do after Shade's death. (Kinbote/moon whose pale
fire is
stolen from Shade/sun.)
But does anyone know if Nabokov was familiar with the Yeats poem?
Jay Livingston
Jeffrey Alexander wrote: "Did Nabokov himself know the poem by Yeats? Is
the reference deliberate or accidental?"
This is the crucial question, no? I would have guessed coincidence.
Regardless
of how Shade is using it in the poem, Nabokov is using it in the novel to
allude
to what Kinbote will do after Shade's death. (Kinbote/moon whose pale
fire is
stolen from Shade/sun.)
But does anyone know if Nabokov was familiar with the Yeats poem?
Jay Livingston