NPPF Canto One: first stanza

[jbor]

on 29/7/03 2:32 AM, cfalbert at calbert at hslboxmaster.com wrote:

> You argue that "consonant dissonance" (or some such thing) works against Nab.s
> purposes in the opening lines.......in the first couplet, there are TWO
> "conspicuous" consonants, the "x" in waxwing  and the "p" in
> windowpane........these two hardly a dissonant stew generate........in fact,
> as MalignD suggests, and I and Boyd insist  - these lines scan exquisitely....

I noted that the phrase "smudge of ashen fluff" unleashes dissonance to no
worthwhile effect. And it's the prosaic "I was ... ", "I was ... ", which
mars what could otherwise have been a very poetic image. Imo.

But thanks for the quote from Fowler. You had previously written that Fowler
suggests that Nabokov had intended to respond to the excesses of Eliot in
composing Shade's 'Pale Fire', but perhaps that isn't the case.

best