Personifications, in LATH, are not as common as I thought because the
emphasis has shifted from attributing human feelings and
motion to inanimate objects, to dwell on human movements
acting onto specific body-parts (as the tongue steping down the
palate, in "Lolita" and "... down the marble steps
of memory's front porch, here sheslowly comes, sideways, sideways, the
poor lame lady..." in LATH)
I think that Nabokov considers them, simply, stylized
images:: "Only by projecting thus on the screen of
my mind those stylized images, could I allay the anguish of carnal
jealousy.."
A host of trite examples with a moon looking down, a smiling sun and
lapping waves seem to have escaped his scrutiny* - perhaps even those in
which we find again variations about "the stunned
look on the face of a clock that has
stopped."
There are many delightful and joyous motion-images: "the performance that a breeze was giving above a street sufficiently
narrow for three pairs of long drawers to cross over on a string in as many
strides or leaps" and multiple variations about typography that may
belong to a separate category, probably related to the
movement-body-thought kind: "Then I drew a thick line
underneath and a caravan of question marks...," one that has not
been used simply as a rich dream-state analogy:"I saw
my pages and notes flash past like the bright windows of an express
train that did not stop at my station, with a battery-operated green
engine that emitted at realistic intervals puffs of imitation
smoke, pursued a circular course through a brambly picturesque
nightmare grove whose dizzy flowers nodded continuous assent to
al the horrors of childhood and hell."
:
I'll continue my search and, please, remember that I humbly welcome
corrections and suggestions!
............................................................................................................................................
* However, Nabokov indicates one that stems from the poetry
of Pushkin: "recite that Pushkin thing
about waves lying down in adoration at her
feet." and in this case it might be an ironical
move. .