NPPF: Summary Line 287 - Line 334

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 15:18, Vincent A. Maeder wrote:
> > 
> > Cedarn means pertaining to cedar. Coleridge used it to describe a
> > hillside in Kublai Khan. . I think the association in our book is with
> > the use of the wood as a preservative.  Closets are lined with cedar
> > wood to protect clothes from moths etc. Kinbote has taken Pale Fire to a
> > place where it can be preserved.
> > 
> Compare with the metaphor of the amber left behind by the cicada which
> preserves the ant.  Of course, amber preserves by entrapment versus cedar.
> V.

Yes, the preservative quality of amber is a double edged sword.

In the refutation of LaFontaine it is the entrapment quality that counts
(Dead is the mandible) but applying the image in a wider sense we might
say that though the poet dies the poem is to be immortalized by
Kinbote's commentary.