>>>>>Azure means blue. Only
secondarily does it connote sky.
At least in Russian poetry "azure" ("lazur'
") used as a noun often means sky, being a standard poetic
cliche'.
An expanded version of this cliche' is
"azure of skies" ["lazur' nebes'], or "sky azure" ["nebesnaya
lazur'"]
e.g. "Lazur' nebes prelestno
ulybalas' " (Tyutchev). -- "Lazur' nebesnaya smeetsya, nochnoj omytaya
grozoj" (Fet) --- "...I
letit, i trepeshchet, kak v lazuri nebes oblaka" (Nabokov)
However, very often "azure" is used as a
synonym of sky.
e.g. "Nado mnoi v lazuri yasnoj svetit zvezdochka
odna" (Pushkin)". --- "Smotri, kak
solnechnye laski v lazuri nezhat strogij krest" (Blok). --
"Zoloto v lazuri" (Bely) [book title: Gold in the Azure]. --
"Tri
kiparisa chudno-mrachno shumyat v lazuri nochi yuzhnoi" (Nabokov)
etc.
Victor Fet
In a message dated 21/02/2007 16:24:21 GMT Standard Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
writes:
What puzzles me about the denigrators of the quality of "Pale
Fire" is that the examples they cite of the poem's supposed clunkers do not
seem clunky to me. "'False azure' indeed." Indeed what?
Brian
Boyd
Here's a suggestion: Azure means blue. Only secondarily does it connote
sky. A thing is either blue, or it isn't. It can't be "falsely" blue. Shade's
English is not as precise as VN's, and a poet should not allow himself to be so
sloppy --- unless it's with deliberate aesthetic intent.
As to why what doesn't sound clunky to some sounds so to others
--- verb sap.
Fair criticism is not denigration.
Charles
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