Inspired by the discussion on paperclips, gauze,
birds I selected a few recurrent
themes or words
(gauze,clip,swing,shagbark,phantom,ghost,shadow,shade) to place them
closer for comparison.
In the poem related to the swing
hanging underneath the shagbark tree, instead of a mockingbird on a TV
antenna and its call, there is a cardinal on the shagbark calling
"chip-wit".
Shade's parents were ornithologists and John Shade
finds himself "most artistically caged", probably inside a
papered birdcage.
Noisy tires and car lights are related to the
annoucement of Hazel's death but also to a beau's arrival to take her to a
ball all wrapped in "gauze", similar to "a veil of blue amorous gauze"
that imitates the sky ( an imitation, like
the blue reflection that deceived the waxwing) and the gauzy
mockingbird. The TV adverts also suggested dancing gauzinesses...
Nevertheless, I still cannot see Hazel as a
mockingbird, except if playing the part of a poor imitation,
mime, shapeless pale fire, distorted mirror reflection of a Sybil
(hirondelle) - but Shade informs us that she resembled him ( waxwing).
Still, she must have resembled Sybil at some point.
Hazel would not rise gracefully as a phantom, John
Shade writes in relation to the shagbark. Sybil Shade's shadow can be
seen, though.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kinbote
on Shade's poem "The
Swing":
The setting sun that lights the tips
Of TV’s giant paperclips
Upon the roof;
The shadow
of the doorknob that
At sundown is a baseball bat
Upon the
door;
The cardinal that likes to sit
And make chip-wit,
chip-wit, chip-wit
Upon the tree;
The empty little swing
that swings
Under the tree: these are the things
That break my
heart.
.....................................
Shade:
White butterflies turn lavender as
they
Pass through its shade* where gently seems to
sway
The phantom of my little daughter’s
swing.
........................................
(shagbark,hickory,sacred
tree)*
......................
...................
.........................................
60
........................................
TV’s huge paperclip now shines
instead
Of the stiff vane so often
visited
By the naïve, the gauzy
mockingbird
Retelling all the programs she had
heard;
Switching from chippo-chippo to a
clear
To-wee, to-wee; then rasping out: come
here,
Come here, come herrr’; flirting her tail
aloft,
......................................................
.......................................................
70 Returning to her perch — the new
TV.
Kinbote (Line 57): Shade crossed out
lightly the following lines in the
draft:
The phantom of my
little daughter's swing [...]
The light is good; the reading
lamps, long-necked;
All doors have keys. Your modern architect
Is in
collusion with psychanalysts:
When planning parents’ bedrooms, he
insists
On lockless doors so that, when looking back,
The future patient
of the future quack
May find, all set for him, the Primal
Scene.
Kinbote ( line 92) The image of those
old-fashioned horrors strangely haunted our poet. I have clipped from a
newspaper..
Mountain
View
Between the mountain and the eye
The spirit of the distance
draws
A veil of blue amorous gauze,
The very texture of the
sky.
Shade:
331 ... with a
great
Screeching of tires on gravel, to the gate
Out of the lacquered
night, a white-scarfed beau
Would never come for her; she’d never go,
A dream of gauze and jasmine, to that
dance.
......................................................
on favourite
Shagbark:
I knew there would be nothing: no
self-styled
Spirit would touch a keyboard of dry
wood
650 To rap out her pet name; no phantom
would
Rise gracefully to welcome you and
me
In the dark garden, near the shagbark
tree.
Where are you? In the garden. I can
see
990 Part of your shadow near the
shagbark
tree.
...............................................................
Kinbote on Shade's short poems
note line
49 (shagbark)
The
Sacred Tree
The ginkgo leaf, in golden hue, when shed,
A muscat
grape,
Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,
In
shape.
............................................................
note
347 (nature of electricity)
.......
Streetlamps are numbered,
and maybe
Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine
(So brightly beaming through a tree
So green) is an old
friend of
mine.