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Re: What the skater retakes
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CK: unnumbered years ago, say 3 to 4, I suggested to this List a possible
nod by VN to Browning¹s How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.
Long before I had encountered Pale Fire, I had suggested in UNIX Review the
obvious mathematical version: How they brought the Good News from X to Y.
See http://www.bartleby.com/246/644.html
I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I gallop¹d, Dirck gallop¹d, we gallop¹d all three;
³Good speed !² cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
³Speed!² echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 5
And into the midnight we gallop¹d abreast.
It rattles on breathlessly like this for 9 more stanzas with the same,
relentlessly-rhyming tetrametric iambic sextets! Familiar?
Only in prosodic structure, of course, but lacking Shadean subtleties.
Browning¹s ride, though, has a puzzle beyond PF¹s Cantos. We never get to
know what the Good News was that saved Aix, or why the mad rush so costly in
man- and horse-power?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 24/02/2010 18:38, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
> On Feb 24, 2010, at 7:13 AM, Matthew Roth wrote:
> My favorite: how "Retake, retake" (487) turns round to become "skaters" in
> line 489. Almost as if JS is trying to rewind the scene.
>
> Dear Matt,
>
> V.N./envy and numbed/Edmund are good mirrorisms in the letter poem, but PF's
> retake, retake and skaters is very interesting indeed. The context is the
> concluding stanzas of Canto II:
>
> "Midnight," you said. What's midnight to the young?
> And suddenly a festive blaze was flung
> Across five cedars, snow patches showed,
> And a patrol car on our bumpy road
> Came to a crunching stop. Retake, retake!
> [cf "retake the falling snow" which opens the second stanza of Canto I]
>
> People have thought she tried to cross the lake
> At Lochan Neck where zesty skaters crossed
> From Exe to Wye on days of special frost.
>
> The crossing of the zesty skaters, "from [x] to [y]," suggests something I
> admit I can't put my finger on. Crossing is a kind of reversal, of course.
> Should we reverse y and x? Could zesty skaters be an anagram in Russian
> (Alexey)?
> and what are days of special frost?* The crunching stop - - could this refer
> to Kinbote's first near-collision with Shade and Sybil in car? Have we
> discussed "Lochan Neck"? What does it mean to "cross Lochan Neck"? The
> crossed/frost rhyme is wonderful and may have some significance of which we
> are currently ignorant.
>
> "Reverse the falling snow" seems initially to mean reverse time (to undo
> Hazel's death presumably), but could there be another meaning? And why five
> cedars (another fire anagram)? Fire and frost? Does snow = nows? Les neiges
> d'antan?
>
> Very interesting - - and intriguing.
> NY Lora C
>
> * "sPEcIAL FRost" does contain "pale fir[e]" but not sure if that's the
> intention. Is a cedar a fir?
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nod by VN to Browning¹s How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.
Long before I had encountered Pale Fire, I had suggested in UNIX Review the
obvious mathematical version: How they brought the Good News from X to Y.
See http://www.bartleby.com/246/644.html
I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I gallop¹d, Dirck gallop¹d, we gallop¹d all three;
³Good speed !² cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
³Speed!² echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 5
And into the midnight we gallop¹d abreast.
It rattles on breathlessly like this for 9 more stanzas with the same,
relentlessly-rhyming tetrametric iambic sextets! Familiar?
Only in prosodic structure, of course, but lacking Shadean subtleties.
Browning¹s ride, though, has a puzzle beyond PF¹s Cantos. We never get to
know what the Good News was that saved Aix, or why the mad rush so costly in
man- and horse-power?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 24/02/2010 18:38, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
> On Feb 24, 2010, at 7:13 AM, Matthew Roth wrote:
> My favorite: how "Retake, retake" (487) turns round to become "skaters" in
> line 489. Almost as if JS is trying to rewind the scene.
>
> Dear Matt,
>
> V.N./envy and numbed/Edmund are good mirrorisms in the letter poem, but PF's
> retake, retake and skaters is very interesting indeed. The context is the
> concluding stanzas of Canto II:
>
> "Midnight," you said. What's midnight to the young?
> And suddenly a festive blaze was flung
> Across five cedars, snow patches showed,
> And a patrol car on our bumpy road
> Came to a crunching stop. Retake, retake!
> [cf "retake the falling snow" which opens the second stanza of Canto I]
>
> People have thought she tried to cross the lake
> At Lochan Neck where zesty skaters crossed
> From Exe to Wye on days of special frost.
>
> The crossing of the zesty skaters, "from [x] to [y]," suggests something I
> admit I can't put my finger on. Crossing is a kind of reversal, of course.
> Should we reverse y and x? Could zesty skaters be an anagram in Russian
> (Alexey)?
> and what are days of special frost?* The crunching stop - - could this refer
> to Kinbote's first near-collision with Shade and Sybil in car? Have we
> discussed "Lochan Neck"? What does it mean to "cross Lochan Neck"? The
> crossed/frost rhyme is wonderful and may have some significance of which we
> are currently ignorant.
>
> "Reverse the falling snow" seems initially to mean reverse time (to undo
> Hazel's death presumably), but could there be another meaning? And why five
> cedars (another fire anagram)? Fire and frost? Does snow = nows? Les neiges
> d'antan?
>
> Very interesting - - and intriguing.
> NY Lora C
>
> * "sPEcIAL FRost" does contain "pale fir[e]" but not sure if that's the
> intention. Is a cedar a fir?
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/