Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning (and, presumably, at the end) of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compares himself to the shadow of the waxwing:

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff--and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. (ll. 1-4)

At the beginning (and, presumably, at the end) of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compares himself to the shadow of the waxwing:

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff--and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. (ll. 1-4)

Waxwings is a poem by Robert Francis (an American poet, 1901-87):

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood fit and says that he felt distributed through space and time: one foot upon a mountaintop, one hand under the pebbles of a panting strand, one ear in Italy, one eye in Spain:

A thread of subtle pain,

Tugged at by playful death, released again,

But always present, ran through me. One day,

When I'd just turned eleven, as I lay

Prone on the floor and watched a clockwork toy -

A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy -

In his commentary to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the aeronaut (a well-known meteorologist) who drowned in the Gulf of Surprise:

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), his uncle Conmal (the Zemblan translator of Shakespeare) was famed for the nobility of his work; few dared question its fidelity:

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), New Wye (a small University town) is situated at the latitude of Palermo:

At the end of his commentary Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) twice repeats the phrase "better stop:"

According to Sybil Shade (in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, the poet's wife), her husband is forbidden to touch alcohol:

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), Shade's former lawyer called the contract signed by Sybil Shade (the poet's widow) "a fantastic farrago of evil:"

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), the Reformation in Zembla had been headed by a composer of genius: