Pale Fire Study Guide

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Commentary, Lines 131-132: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by feigned remoteness in the windowpane. through Line 162: With his pure tongue, etc. Summary

The first two lines of the poem nearly repeat here, and Kinbote comments on their beauty and the variation from the first lines. The lines lead him to think of Shade's death, which leads him back to the story of Gradus, the killer, coming ever nearer.

Kinbote stumbles trying to define "lemniscate," which his dictionary defines with obscure mathematical words and suspects Shade of picking the word for sound instead of meaning. Kinbote mentions seeing the clockwork toy from Shade's poem, and when the poet mentions a mountain, that's enough to bring Kinbote back to Charles's story.

King Charles and Odon escape from the theater, but Charles has been spotted. The extremists.....

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