We've been through this before. Why, why, why "presumably a repetition of the first line at the end"? We have only Kinbote's word for it. Why should we accept it? He doesn't even claim Shade told him there would be such a repetition. As I pointed out last time round, the poem would read very oddly if it did in fact end with the first line. Was my instigation of the Great Competition on NABOKV-L to compose a last (not equal to first) line all in vain?

 

Anthony Stadlen