Just to add to the
discussion. I had lunch yesterday with Helen Vendler at Harvard, probably the
greatest writer on poetry in English alive )magisterial books on Shakspeareøs
sonnets, Keatsøs odes, Wallace Stevens, and much much more, and more coming on
the 20C long poem). She thinks PF a great poem, unqualifiedly.
Brian Boyd )excuse Danish keyboard I
canøt master. A long story).
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on
behalf of Steven
Sent: Thu 9/11/2006 5:58 PM
To:
NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Serious &
unserious poets
But Nabokov
himself didn't claim it was a great poem -- simply the greatest 'invented'
poem. A distinction with a difference, I think, considering how the small
number of such works limits the field.
On Nov 6, 2006, at 9:56 PM, NABOKV-L wrote:
It's more of a game to him, a chess problem
to
work out. Thus, we are not bound to consider the author's
relationship to his poem as a factor in considering its merits.
We
can judge the poem by its purely internal merits.