Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his dead daughter and quotes the words of his wife Sybil "Virgins have written some resplendent books:"

Another winter was scrape-scooped away.

The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May.

Summer was power-mowed, and autumn, burned.

Alas, the dingy cygnet never turned

Into a wood duck. And again your voice:

"But this is prejudice! You should rejoice

That she is innocent. Why overstress

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compares a tall white fountain that he saw during his heart attack to Old Faithful (a cone geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States):

My vision reeked with truth. It had the tone, 

The quiddity and quaintness of its own 

Reality. It was. As time went on,

Its constant vertical in triumph shone. 

Often when troubled by the outer glare 

Describing the death of Queen Blenda, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the drunk who started to sing a ribald ballad about "Karlie-Garlie:"

According to Kinbote (in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), he was introduced to Shade on Monday, February 16, 1959:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his visit to a Mrs. Z. who glimpsed a tall white fountain ["fountain" turns out to be a misprint of "mountain"] during her heart attack:

It was a story in a magazine

About a Mrs. Z. whose heart had been

Rubbed back to life by a prompt surgeon's hand.

She told her interviewer of "The Land

Beyond the Veil" and the account contained

A hint of angels, and a glint of stained

In Canto Two (begun "early in the morning" on July 5, 1959) of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) says "Today I'm sixty-one:"

And finally there was the sleepless night

When I decided to explore and fight

The foul, the inadmissible abyss,

Devoting all my twisted life to this

One task. Today I'm sixty-one. Waxwings

Are berry-pecking. A cicada sings. (ll. 177-182)

Describing the King's escape from Zembla, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the Rippleson Caves, sea caves in Blawick, where a powerful motorboat was prepared for him:

In his commentary and index to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Fleur de Fyler, Queen Disa's favorite lady-in-waiting:

In his commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Roman Tselovalnikov, a maternal uncle of Jakob Gradus (Shade’s murderer):

Line 17: And then the gradual; Line 29: gray

Investigating the phenomena in the Haunted Barn, Hazel Shade (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, the poet’s daughter) asked the luminous circlet if it were a will-o-the-wisp: