CANTO ONE: "slain/By"

[Malignd]

Why "slain"? 

and

<<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.>>

Another possibility here is that the "I"s are not
banal self-involvement but a specific reference to
Shade's near-death experience following his attack
(line 691).  He was "slain," momentarily (his heart
stopped), brought down by an attack, then his heart
began again to beat and he "lived on, flew on ..."
etc.

He goes on, speaking of visual deceptions(710):  

The scene was not our sense.  In life, the mind
Of any man is quick to recognize 
Natural shams, and then before his eyes
The reed becomes a bird, the knobby twig
An inchworm, and the cobra head, a big
Wickedly folded moth. ...



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