What's even stranger is that this single mention of Zembla in Shade's poem is not commented on by Kinbote at all. After all his listening to chattering Kinbote, Shade can't be faulted for using one "Zembla" in his 999 lines, even if the "distant northern land" is here only the "country of [his] cheek."

Shade has earlier told us, in his long (895-938) passage on how much he hates his daily shave (an ode to simply being alive) that he is "in the class of fussy bimanists" when it comes to wielding a razor.  Thus, the "slaves [who] make hay between his mouth and nose" are his two hands.