Epic Poetry ... poem/read dynamic

[Tim Strzechowski]

Jasper, I know what you mean.  For me at least (and I don't wish to propel
this thread further from N and P as maybe the Milton discussion did), the
*only* poet I've encountered who could make heroic couplets flow smoothly
without that artificial quality is Pope. Others may very well disagree, but
Pope's couplets are about as perfect as any poet can hope to make them!

You specify English.  I'd be interested in knowing if that artificial
quality to rhyming is typical of rhyme in other languages, as well.  I'm
certain it is, and not unique to our language.


> What's the point of
> rhyming anyway?  What's Shade point in rhyming "Pale Fire"?
>

I find it interesting -- and appropriate -- that the Shade poem is composed
in couplets, and the nature of _Pale Fire_ (the novel itself) as a fiction
is concerned with a pairing, a coupling of poet and commentator, and the
intricate dialogue and interpretation that transpires between Shade and
Kinbote, poet and commentator, reader and poetic artifact, and reader and
novelist.  Lots of pairings.

Didn't we post something before in VLVL2 about pairs and doubles in
_Vineland_?

Respectfully,

Tim