My judgment is ... (unpopular with many Nabokovians) that Shade is a lousy poet, presented as such via brilliantly-balanced but mean-low-down parody by VN.

 

Opinions understandably differ about whether Shade is a lousy poet, but it seems clear to me that VN did not present him as such.  On the contrary, it is almost inconceivable that VN would have spent the first many pages of his follow-up novel to Lolita presenting lousy poetry.  This flies in the face of everything we know of the man.  Furthermore, the fact that he offered long excerpts from the poem at public readings, to which his audience responded with evident and unironic enjoyment, also argues for VN's faith in the poem's merits.  Most signficant of all, the poem is, let's face it, Nabokovian in the highest degree!  See my article "Genius and Plausibility: Suspension of Disbelief in Pale Fire" on the Zembla website. 

 

Best,

 

J.