I always took it to mean the horseshoe from the game of horseshoes Shade describes hearing. The point of the game is to get the horseshoe around a post in the ground, but points are also given if it touches the post, so leaning against it would make sense in that context.

 - Michael Lavey

On Friday, March 15, 2013, Nabokv-L wrote:



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Pale Fire Line 992
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 03:44:41 -0700
From: Barrie Akin <ba@TAXBAR.COM>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
CC: Barrie Akin <ba@TAXBAR.COM>


Can anyone shed some light on this line for me? "(Leaning against its lampost like a drunk.)" Apart from the fact that my Penguin Modern Classics edition of PF uses the above spelling - "lampost" - which I take to be a typographical error for "lamppost", the oddity of this line for me is that I can't see the referent for "its". The full stop at the end of the line seems to rule out the dark vanessa of the next line - and anyway it would make no sense in the context if "its" referred to a butterfly in flight. And I can't see anything in the preceeding lines that could be doing the drunken leaning. This has irritated me for a long time - a seemingly superfluous line in the middle of (for me at least) some sublime verse. Can somebody put me out of my misery here - what am I missing?

Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.

Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.