In a message dated 5/5/2010 9:12:33 PM Central Daylight Time, STADLEN@AOL.COM writes:
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
As I've said before, the omission of the last line by Shade (and the "last" line is probably the first) is part of the poem's clearly symmetrical structure. Leaving off this line this would make line 500 the central line of 999 (only in a poem with an odd number of lines can there be a central line). This line the marks Hazel's death, and Hazel's death is clearly the "center" of the poem.
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