This poet describes being “corrupted, terrified, allured” in Canto 1 of his most famous poem. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this poet who wrote how he was like “some little lad forced by a wench,” implying that he may have been assaulted as a child. A poem by this author opens by depicting a “smudge of ashen fluff.”
ANSWER: John Shade [or John Francis Shade]
[10e] This is the title of John Shade’s largely autobiographical, four-canto poem, which it shares with Vladimir Nabokov's novel that includes Charles Kinbote's commentary.
ANSWER: Pale Fire
[10m] Pale Fire is reinterpreted as a national epic of this country in Charles Kinbote’s commentary. This country sends the assassin Gradus to kill its former king, who is actually Kinbote himself.
ANSWER: Zembla
<Jay Kim, American Literature>