Emily Dickinson

So we talked briefly in class about Emily Dickinson, and am reading her work in another class, Dr. Leubner's 19th Century American Lit. One of the assigned poems was the one below, and although Nabokov surely was not referring to Dickinson when searching for the title of Shade's poem, aspects of it did remind me of "Pale Fire."


Dare you see a Soul at the "White Heat"?
Then crouch within the door -
Red - is the fire’s common tint -
But when the vivid Ore

Has Vanquished Flame’s conditions -
It quivers from the Forage
Without a color, but the Light
Of unanointed Blaze -

Least Village, boasts its Blacksmith -
Whose Anvil’s even ring
Stands symbol for the finer Forge
That soundless tugs - within -

Refining these impatient Ores
With Hammer, and with Blaze -
Until the designated Light
Repudiate the Forge -

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Not only does she talk about include "White heat" in her poem, but about the light blaze of a really hot fire. This imagery has obvious similarities to a "pale fire." I think that the above poem could also be construed as a poem about the creation of a poem by a poet. The poet continues to "refine" his poems until the intended light shines through and captures the spirit the poet intended. Shade himself does this. There were a number of passages which he decided to omit and replace with others. He played with the words of the poem until he had molded something truly beautiful, a work of art complete with pity, and a poem that served as a remembrance of his lost daughter.