NPPF Canto 1: 1-4

[jbor]

>> http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/birds/songbird/bombycil.htm
>> 
>> Why 'slain?' 
>> 
>> Slay = to kill violently or to overwhelm, as with laughter or love
>> 
> 
> 
> Kinbote corrects to "knocking itself out."
> 

Shade characterises himself as the "shadow" of the bird which was killed by
(because of/due to) the reflection of sky in the window. All the definite
articles make it sound like something which had actually happened, a scene
Shade had witnessed from inside his bedroom. But it's the "I was ... I was
... I lived ... " -- the unashamed yet hopelessly banal self-involvement of
it all -- which butchers what could otherwise have been quite a stunning
setpiece.

As the bird hits the window it leaves a "smudge of ashen fluff" (the first
of many jarring prosodies and a hopelessly overwrought image to boot) --
Shade announces himself as this too. Then he also envisions himself, as the
imaginary shadow of the now-dead bird, flying on into the reflection of the
sky. Ugh.

It's the epitome of bombast, and it sets the stage for the many crimes
against craft and subtlety which lay ahead.

best