In a message dated 3/1/2010 8:07:02 AM Central Standard Time, MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU writes:
Here is a scan of the relevant lines from The Exile:
Verlaine had been also a teacher somewhere
in England. And what about great Baudelaire,
alone in his Belgi-an hell?
[Actually, in isolation these lines might be scanned as iambic pentameter!
Verlaine had been also a teacher somewhere
in England. And what about great Baud'laire,
alone in his Belgian hell? ]
It seems as though Nabokov is having his fun with the syllabic rigidity of amphibrachic meter, showing how it forces three syllables on "Baudelaire" and capping the joke by forcing three on "Belgian."
No way this could be scanned as iambic pentameter. However, changing the syntax of the first line results in "Verlaine had also been a teacher somewhere," which is a fairly regular I5 line (with feminine ending).
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