Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0020598, Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:41:40 +0100

Subject
Re: model poet
Date
Body
RSG: I¹m reminded of my time with the ALLC (Association for Literary &
Linguistic Computing) where we actually counted, stylometrically, such
things as end-stops and enjambs! Not QUITE as computable as you might
imagine. This replaced informal speculation with firmish percentages! For
example, Shakespeare did, in fact, use relatively more enjambs than
end-stops as time passed by. These, and other parameters, gave clues in
dating those plays of uncertain vintage (and even resolving disputed
authorship). Yes, there are dangers in naïve statistical analysis, but with
large corpora such as the Bard¹s and his Rivals¹, plausible patterns can be
defended. There is the general feeling that enjambs (and caesurae) indicate
an increasingly mature, flexible, inventive, poetic mastery when ideas are
presented in sequences of lines. At the same time, poetry is for reading
ALOUD. The reciter is free to pause or not, unblinded by the WHITE space.

PF-the-poem is too small a sample, methinks, (and far too VN sui-generis !?)
to compare prosodic characteristics as clues for possible Shadean
models/influences. As you point out, all enjambs are not born equal: Shade¹s
enjambs often straddle the rhymed pair (aa) as a semantic unit, but also
carrying over from (ab), (bc) or (cd). Dipping at random, I find an (aab)
unit followed by an end-stopped (b):

We heard cremationists guffaw and snort
At Grabermann¹s denouncing the Retort
As detrimental to the birth of wraiths.
We all avoided criticizing faiths. [623]

Then comes a (ccdde) enjambed-unit burst = role/soul/Chinese/teas/go,
followed by (eff) = Poe/strange/range.

When can we buy the Solus-PF? I¹m all AGOG, anxious to read the RSG and BB
prefaces. The very fact that we are debating possible models/influences
(surely plural) on VN-as-creator-of-poet-Shade, reinforces my amateur
interpretation that VN is teasing¹n¹pleasing us with a subtle mix of fine,
serious verse and biting satire/parody. What to make of

³Yes, that¹s okay.² Gripping the stang, she peered
At ghostly trees. Bus stopped. Bus disappeared.

And (an oft-cited but ignored Elephant-in-the-Room):

A blurry shape stepped off the reedy bank
Into a crackling, gulping swamp, and sank.

Echoes of Pope¹s MOCK-heroics:

For ever curs'd be this detested Day,
Which snatch'd my best, my fav'rite Curl away!
Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,
If Hampton-Court these Eyes had never seen! (The Rape of the Lock)

Note the pair of enjambs, which some claim adds to the fun. I claim that no
serious discussion of Life and Death can survive relentless rhymed couplets,
however spatially mangled.


On 26/08/2010 01:42, "R S Gwynn" <Rsgwynn1@CS.COM> wrote:

> In a message dated 8/25/2010 5:47:32 PM Central Daylight Time,
> glipon@INNERLEA.COM writes:
>>
>> On Aug 25, 2010, at 11:40 AM, Hyman, Eric wrote:
>>
>>> Neither Browning nor Shade¹s verse is heroic couplets (as some say), because
>>> of that enjambment,
>> and Chaucer too?
>>
> Purists would contend that true heroic couplets must be end-stopped in the
> manner of Dryden, Pope, and many other poets of that time. But the term
> usually denotes just the form--rhymed pairs of pentameters. Enjambment has
> varied from poet to poet--Keats, Byron, and Browning often enjamb fairly
> radically, as did Lowell. Shade enjambs quite a bit, but generally his units
> of thought work out in two-line pairs. Not always, though. Frost's lovely
> "The Tuft of Flowers" breaks the couplets (with white space) into separate
> stanzas.


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