Carolyn Kunin [ to:"Perhaps someone will track down
references to these various "spirits." Dubonnet, for one?"] :I think Jansy
may have hit on a pun, a dig at spiritualism perhaps... Carolyn developped
my point about "spirits," ...one of her first lines led me immediately to a
poem by Percy B. Shelley that begins with "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!."
..."Trundling an empty barrow up the
lane."
Jansy Mello: An unofficial version may
be a rose, too...(VN's reference to Rupert Brooke's "The Old
Vicarage,Grandchester", in "RLSK") or nothing at all (
I don't
think that most listlers will find that Keats's ode to a nightingale is an
inspiring source for John Shade)
However, the absurd image of a non-descript gardener
trundling a barrow (already hinted at with butterfly and all in "King Queen
Knave") bothered me again and I decided to check on "barrow"(present in young
Shade's first passing out after meeting a mechanical toy close to his
bed).
Here is
what wiki brought up in relation to it and the theme of "death" (now I thought
about Poussin's painting related to Arcadia*, also referred to in "Pale
Fire")
wiki:
A tumulus (plural tumuli)
is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known
as barrows, burial
mounds, Hügelgräber or kurgans,
and can be found throughout much of the world.
A cairn (a mound of stones built for various
purposes), might also be originally a tumulus. A long
barrow is a long tumulus, usually for numbers
of burials..
....................................................
* Et in
Arcadia Ego: