Here's the beginning of Ford's sonnet "An Old Gray Barn", quoted at
the above site.
The barn is a gray grandfather on whose knees
The wind plays, like children; and his ribs
Rattle with their laughter. Some of these
Still stand by country roads; and old corn-cribs
Lean hard upon the muscle of the air.
"Muscle of the air"--sounds to me like the same style as "shaking
fire/ Out of the morning". I wonder whether there's some clue
in the poem that Kinbote quoted.
Funny that I was just talking about Nabokov's incorporating
other people's writing into one's art. Will this lead us
to Eliot?
Jerry Friedman