Epic Poetry ... poem/read dynamic

[Tim Strzechowski]

Quoth Michael Joseph:

> > Tim, Milton aside, why do you say Shade's poem lacks a poem/reader
> > dynamic? I don't ask to put you on the spot, but inasmuch as it
> > strikes me as very musical and redolent of Nabokov's own ideas (as
> > David and I have been discussing), and because parts of it are very
> > affecting, I guess I'm willing to risk putting you on the spot (grin) to
> > find out what it is I'm missing - or what it is that's missing that I'm
> > not seeing.
> >

Frankly, I'm sure others on the List have a far better appreciation and
understanding of Shade's poem than I do, and what I'm about to say will no
doubt be torn to shreds (and I rather hope it is, because maybe I'll learn
something I didn't know about the poem).  Nevertheless, you asked for my
opinion, so here it is:

For me, the biggest obstacle to enjoying Shade's poem is Shade himself.  I
find his poetic voice arrogant, and during his tiresome catalog of scenes
and objects in Canto 1, for example,  we are continually reminded of what a
sensitive and exceptional poet he fancies himself to be.  From the opening
pronoun "I," we are treated to an incessant list of scenes that he is trying
to capture in verse, and he informs us that "My eyes were such that
literally they / Took
photographs" (30-1), and he need only close his eyes and "tarry for an hour
or two" (37) before "reproducing" (39) the various elements of the scene.
This goes on and on throughout the opening canto, examples abound, and quite
frankly Shade's opinions of Shade's poetic skills grow tiresome after a
while.

Earlier in the thread I tried to contrast this aspect of Shade's writing
style with that of Milton's found in _Paradise Lost_ (which is how the whole
Milton discussion began).  Throughout the epic, Milton invokes the Muse to
help grant him the ability to envision what he cannot see, and no fewer than
three times does the Miltonic bard voice concerns over the adequacy with
which he will capture and convey such sublime events.  Beginning Book IX,
the poet states:

"If answerable style I can obtain
Of my celestial patroness, who deigns
Her mighty visitation unimplored,
And dictates to me slumb'ring, or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse" (lines 20-4),

one of many passages in the poem that present a poetic voice that is humbled
by the magnitude of the subject matter and the limitations of one's poetic
ability (in Milton's case, blindness). Shade's poetic voice is a bit too
full of itself for my liking.

Stylistically, I find that the Shade poem grows on me the more I reread it.
When I first read it many moons ago, I recall thinking that it sounds
similar to something that could have been written by Byron (_Don Juan_, for
example), in that the word choice to achieve many of the rhymes seems to
have been achieved by choosing a rhyme first and then fashioning the iambic
structure to fit that rhyme, a technique that is often used by less adept
student-poets, achieving some pretty lame-ass results (e.g. "I went into my
first hour study hall / And there I found you making a telephone call"). For
Byron, of course, it adds to the intended humor of the poetry while giving
it an improvised quality.  Here's an example, chosen pretty much at random:

"Her favorite science was the mathematical,
   Her noblest virtue was her magnanimity,
Her wit (she sometimes tried at wit) was Attic all,
   Her serious sayings darkened to sublimity;
In short, in all things she was fairly what I call
   A prodigy -- her morning dress was dimity,
Her evening silk, or, in the summer, muslin,
And other stuffs, with which I won't stay puzzling."  (_Don Juan_, Canto I,
verse 12)

There are times in Shade's poem that, to me, seem to echo this "forced
rhyme" quality, though given the overall serious tone of the poem, it can
hardly be justified by Shade (although, as Rob has suggested, this perhaps
adds to the parodic quality of Nabokov's aims).  For example:

"But it's not bedtime yet.  The sun attains
Old Dr. Sutton's last two windowpanes.
The man must be -- what? Eighty? Eighty-two?
Was twice my age the year I married you.
Where are you? In the garden.  I can see
Part of your shadow near the shagbark tree.
Somewhere horseshoes are being tossed.  Click.  Clunk.
(Leaning against its lamppost like a drunk.) [...]   (lines 985 - 991)

As I've said, however, the poem has grown on me, and there are certainly
passages of incredible beauty sprinkled throughout.  But it's hardly a
masterpiece in and of itself.

Finally, I didn't mean to suggest that those favorite lines or passages we
may have from the shade poem don't touch our soul, or impact us in some
profound way as any favorite poem might.  Yes, there are "musical" and
"affecting" qualities of the poem, but my comparison with Milton was geared
more toward the way in which a poem like _Paradise Lost_ demands of its
readers a certain reaction to its moral implications if we are to fully
appreciate what Milton has attempted to do.  In creating a character like
Satan, he manipulates the sympathies of his readers in a way that parallels
the very lapse of reason experienced by Adam and Eve and we, as readers, are
hard pressed to judge them for their Fall when we, too, are somewhat led to
sympathize with the villain.  Yet, by incorporating the occasional asides of
the bardic voice, Milton balances our sympathies with reminders (from
above?) that Satan is not to be trusted.  Hence, as a poet Milton puts his
reader into the same sort of moral predicament that his characters are in.

I don't see that Shade's poem, alone, possesses that sort of moral dynamic.
For me, that dynamic comes into play only when we take into account Kinbote
and his (mis)reading of the poem.  Only then can we truly evaluate the
intentions of author vs. commentator; only then can we judge the
effectiveness of the commentator's work; only then can we gain insight into
the moral ambiguities of poet and commentator.  Milton's poem achieves a
reader/poem dynamic by itself; Shade's poem doesn't ... only when we
consider how Kinbote has (mis)handled the poem can we, as reader's, begin to
grapple with the moral implications and issues that arise from it.

So . . . stepping back from both Shade and Kinbote, I suppose one might say
that Nabokov (as author of both Kinbote and Shade) achieves a
reader/literary work dynamic akin to that of Milton.

Whew . . .

Tim S.