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Re: False Azure, CHW reply to BB
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Dear Charles,
I want to comment on one aspect of your critique, namely that use of azure
in PF as a cliché:
1) There is a tension in azure part of the quoted rhyme; we are forced to
speed up at it to fit in the rhyme, - kind of smashing really fast and hard
into something. I believe that even cliché words loose their life support
when such tension is achieved.
2) Does branding certain word cliché prohibits their use regardless of
context, semantic and other spices? I think not. This cliché may be a trap.
3) Could lack of azure in RFs poetry be just a sign of personal
preference? Or that he did not have a way to generate the above tension?
4) Should we place so such value in numeric order in OED and to the fact
that it does not list azure as noun denoting sky as other dictionaries do?
Poetry is arguably a thing of perfect rhyme but it is not a thing of perfect
order.
5) Shade is the poet but VN is the writer of the novel containing the poem.
Isnt that sufficient ground to place more weight on use of azure in the
4th meaning? If we use Shades poem to criticize VN as a poet lets give
credit to Russian poetic heritage to which VN alludes. Even Frost wrote in
context of his life.
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowplane;
Sincerely,
George
>The truth is that Duncan White selectively chose not the first definition
from the OED, but the fourth. The OED actually has 1) The precious stone
lapis lazuli; 2) A bright blue pigment or dye; 3) The blue colour in coats
of arms; 4) The clear blue colour of the unclouded sky. The OED does not
even support the idea that, in English, the word azure is a synonym,
accepted by sustained usage, for the sky itself. I see no reason not to
stand by what I said: Only secondarily does azure connote sky.
>However, he is writing verse in English, and azure as a synonym for
sky, in English, still smacks of the poetastic cliché. Blue, in similar
usage, is also a cliché in English: The Wild Blue Yonder, Into The Blue,
etc. Just for a lark, I flipped through Frosts collected poems to see if
hed ever used the word azure. Although I cant be certain, Im willing to
place a small bet that he didnt use it once, in the sense of "sky" or in
any other sense. He is guilty of the occasional lapse, particularly in his
earliest collection, A Boys Will, (eg zephyr, on noiseless wings) but
azure isnt one of them. My impression is that his second collection,
North of Boston, eschews this sort of thing with exemplary rigour. The fact
is that Frost became an absolute master of English poetry and the English
language, and John Shade wasnt. I dont deny that he may well be an
exceedingly ingenious fabricator of verbal puzzles. Ultimately this isnt
poetry, as I understand poetry.
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I want to comment on one aspect of your critique, namely that use of azure
in PF as a cliché:
1) There is a tension in azure part of the quoted rhyme; we are forced to
speed up at it to fit in the rhyme, - kind of smashing really fast and hard
into something. I believe that even cliché words loose their life support
when such tension is achieved.
2) Does branding certain word cliché prohibits their use regardless of
context, semantic and other spices? I think not. This cliché may be a trap.
3) Could lack of azure in RFs poetry be just a sign of personal
preference? Or that he did not have a way to generate the above tension?
4) Should we place so such value in numeric order in OED and to the fact
that it does not list azure as noun denoting sky as other dictionaries do?
Poetry is arguably a thing of perfect rhyme but it is not a thing of perfect
order.
5) Shade is the poet but VN is the writer of the novel containing the poem.
Isnt that sufficient ground to place more weight on use of azure in the
4th meaning? If we use Shades poem to criticize VN as a poet lets give
credit to Russian poetic heritage to which VN alludes. Even Frost wrote in
context of his life.
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowplane;
Sincerely,
George
>The truth is that Duncan White selectively chose not the first definition
from the OED, but the fourth. The OED actually has 1) The precious stone
lapis lazuli; 2) A bright blue pigment or dye; 3) The blue colour in coats
of arms; 4) The clear blue colour of the unclouded sky. The OED does not
even support the idea that, in English, the word azure is a synonym,
accepted by sustained usage, for the sky itself. I see no reason not to
stand by what I said: Only secondarily does azure connote sky.
>However, he is writing verse in English, and azure as a synonym for
sky, in English, still smacks of the poetastic cliché. Blue, in similar
usage, is also a cliché in English: The Wild Blue Yonder, Into The Blue,
etc. Just for a lark, I flipped through Frosts collected poems to see if
hed ever used the word azure. Although I cant be certain, Im willing to
place a small bet that he didnt use it once, in the sense of "sky" or in
any other sense. He is guilty of the occasional lapse, particularly in his
earliest collection, A Boys Will, (eg zephyr, on noiseless wings) but
azure isnt one of them. My impression is that his second collection,
North of Boston, eschews this sort of thing with exemplary rigour. The fact
is that Frost became an absolute master of English poetry and the English
language, and John Shade wasnt. I dont deny that he may well be an
exceedingly ingenious fabricator of verbal puzzles. Ultimately this isnt
poetry, as I understand poetry.
Search
<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> the
Nabokv-L archive with Google
Contact <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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