"Nobody will heed
my index,
I suppose,
But through it a gentle wind ex
Ponto
blows
This is not a poem, and therefore not a “bad” poem. It is an itty-bitty bit of witty verse..."
My copy ( Vintage, 1966) carries different lines:
"Through the window of that index
Climbs a rose
And sometimes a gentle wind ex
Ponto blows."
In that one "I suppose" became "a rose" and unheedful readers are the "vulgar", not the "discerning ones" ( as we find in the lines that come before it.)
Does CHW know why his verses are different, which were written before, what is the corrected version?
CHW: You didn't answer my comment about your sentence: Basic premise: Accept that both halves of PF emanate entirely from the inventive mind of Botkin...
I asked you why you only saw two parts ( Poem and Commentary) as comprising "Pale Fire", not the Index, not the Foreword.