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Not only did I find Brian Boyd's comments on the title
/Night Rote/ fascinating and largely convincing, they prompted
me to realize belatedly that "Pale Fire" is also a watery
title, as it refers to the sea.
I see his comment on the chronology as less persuasive, since
it relies on Kinbote's Zemblan stories. In particular, the
"brilliant and charming boy from Boston", seeming typical
of Kinbote's wistful inventions, makes the episode less "real"
to me. Forty-five or so does seem late for Shade's second book
of poems, though, as Sam Gwynn pointed out.
Please see below.
--- R S Gwynn <Rsgwynn1@CS.COM> wrote:
> Of course, VN may have known the
> line, but I can't imagine him reading TSE that closely. Since both
JS
> and VN
> didn't care for Eliot, why would either have lifted a title from
him?
But we know VN knew of some rare words in "Four Quartets".
However he found them, he could well have found another rare
word there in the same way.
On the other hand, even aside from the chronology, I agree
that Shade would probably not have taken half a title from
"some phony modern poem".
Jerry Friedman