Jansy wrote:

 

….  poets VN respected ( among them Keats and Browning). In the first part of Lolita VN made a passing mention to Hopkins and often I hear of "dappled" clearings which might be related to this bespeckled alliterative rhythmic poet.

And yet, in ADA, his comment on "sprung rhythm" seemed rather mocking, but I found it difficult to judge since I cannot even imagine how Russian verse would sound in SR.  Could you, CHW, or one among our List experts clarify ? 

 

Dear Jansy,

 

I much regret Russian to me is a closed book that I'm unlikely to open at this juncture. There must be others on the list not too base to ignore your query. However, I would say that the greatest disaster that has befallen English poetry in the last 150 years is the selfless reticence and suppression of Hopkins until Bridges' belated (and hesitant?) recognition of him in 1918; coupled with the previous hysterical, and in my view barmy, adulation of  Pound, a barn-storming self-promoter from the New World. I am reasonably certain that VN couldn't abide Pound, under any conditions.  

 

My (Kinbote's) own language:

 

Ret wóren ok spóz on nátt ut vétt?
Éto est vótchez ut míd ik détt.

 

How do you think did GMHopkins rate with VN?

 

Off the cuff, I'd say he was in two minds about him. Looking at this little chunk of Zemblan translation again, I'd say it resembles nothing so much as several Scandinavian languages passed through a meat-mincer. "Votchez" and "spoz" could be added spices, from a more exotic habitat. I suppose the acute accents indicate stress, a la Hopkins.

 

Wikipedia has quite a good stab at explaining sprung-rhythm.

 

Best,

 

Charles