In LATH, Nabokov makes reference to a common-place animation
in the poetry of Pushkin: "recite that
Pushkin thing about waves lying down in adoration at her
feet.," with an ironical twist. Another example, also focusing on
reverent waves, is simply delightful and it can be read in VN's short-story
"Ultima Thule" (one that I was unwilling to read in full, despite its links to
PF and northern lands and kings*)
"..I sat on the pebbles of the beach, where once your
golden legs had been extended; and, as before, a wave would arrive, all out of
breath, but, as it had nothing to report, it would disperse in apologetic
salaams."
And, again, Pushkin enters the picture but this time, the quote
has him dismiss the secret soul of things: "Ah,
yes—everything around me kept warily, attentively silent, and only when I looked
at something did that something give a start and begin ostentatiously to move,
rustle, or buzz, pretending not to notice me. "Indifferent nature," says
Pushkin. Nonsense! A continuous shying-away would be a more accurate
description." Or, on the contrary, both he and Nabokov are dealing with
the opacity of the world, the ineffable noumena, with a distinct
emotional response to their silence. * .
............................................................
* Here are E.A. Poe's lines, personificating ghostly Night in his approach
to an "ultimate dim Thule" and Night's sovereignty over Fiction ("out
of Space - out of Time.")
"Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns
upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule
—
From a wild weird clime, that lieth, sublime,
Out of Space — out of
Time."