AF,p.72: Pushkin is a rainbow
over all the land
Lermontov, the Milky way above the
mountains,,
Tiutchev,a spring flowing in the haze,
Fet, a
rubicund ray in a temple.
the poem was written "on the occasion of the death of Alexandr Blok in
August 1921" In these lines, the great Russian poets will "converge at an
appointed time toward the soul of Aleksandr Blok, and: even we/in these years of
sorrow and anger,/perhaps shall hear from our prison/the secret reverberation of
their song."
Later Nabokov will also speak of arches and bridges in poetery: " my word arches like an aerial bridge across the
world." (AF,p.93)
I suppose that by this period Nabokov hadn't yet turned into
what M.Glynn designated as an "anti-symbolist" (if
ever?)