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Re: THOUGHTS: Nihilistic shaving, irony in Canto 4 of Pale Fire
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In a message dated 5/3/2010 4:22:22 PM Central Daylight Time,
MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU writes:
>
> RSG: It's beautifully ironic that line 984 (which stretches out as one of
> the visually longest lines in the poem) is only 9 syllables long, perhaps
> ironically signaling (it is VN's irony!) the short time that Shade has
> left.
>
> MR: I don't think 984 is only 9 syllables. I assume you are counting
> "Poems" as one syllable. Yet line 960 (unless it too is 9 syllables) seems to
> count "Poems" as two syllables. Since "poems" can legitimately be scanned as
> either one or two syllables, shouldn't PF's very consistent 10-syllable
> pattern lead us to read it as 2 syllables?
>
>
Totally my mistake. I was counting "poems" as two syllables and still came
up with nine. I think I was having a brain freeze, leaving "back" out.
Perhaps I too am mentally disintegrating.
As for the "Newport frill" I must have come across it somewhere but can't
find it now. "Newgate frill" makes sense, though.
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MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU writes:
>
> RSG: It's beautifully ironic that line 984 (which stretches out as one of
> the visually longest lines in the poem) is only 9 syllables long, perhaps
> ironically signaling (it is VN's irony!) the short time that Shade has
> left.
>
> MR: I don't think 984 is only 9 syllables. I assume you are counting
> "Poems" as one syllable. Yet line 960 (unless it too is 9 syllables) seems to
> count "Poems" as two syllables. Since "poems" can legitimately be scanned as
> either one or two syllables, shouldn't PF's very consistent 10-syllable
> pattern lead us to read it as 2 syllables?
>
>
Totally my mistake. I was counting "poems" as two syllables and still came
up with nine. I think I was having a brain freeze, leaving "back" out.
Perhaps I too am mentally disintegrating.
As for the "Newport frill" I must have come across it somewhere but can't
find it now. "Newgate frill" makes sense, though.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/