And speaking of Keats, my search of the archive shows no references to Lamia, which surprises me because “crimson-barred” in line 270 of Pale Fire is (give or take an apostrophe) a direct steal (if one is allowed to use that word) from line 50 of that poem and “neon-barred” (line 398) an obvious echo.

Obviously, VN may just have taken the phrase because it’s rather beautiful, but there are one or two obvious correspondences between  Lamia and Pale Fire, starting with people not being who they seem to be and ending with the hero’s untimely death – in Lamia when the spoilsport Apollonius reveals what Lamia really is and causes her to vanish, Lycius dies the same night, apparently  of a broken heart.

Has anyone done any detailed work on this? If so, where is it published?

And while I’m thinking about it, another similarity between Lamia and PF is the use of rhyming couplets, albeit that Lamia is sprinkled with Alexandrines, which prompts the thought that Pope’s

“A needless alexandrine ends the song

That like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along”

connect the “heroine” of Lamia and John Shade’s main academic interest.

Barrie Akin

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.