And speaking of this wonderful machine:[840] I’m puzzled by the difference between, the kind Which goes on solely in the poet’s mind, A testing of performing words, while he, The other kind, much more decorous, when He’s in his study writing with a pen. In method B the hand supports the thought, The abstract battle is concretely fought. The pen stops in mid-air, then swoops to bar[850]  A canceled sunset or restore a star, And thus it physically guides the phrase Toward faint daylight through the inky maze. is agony! The brain Is soon enclosed in a steel cap of pain. A muse in overalls directs the drill Which grinds and which no effort of the will Can interrupt, while the automaton Is taking off what he has just put on Or walking briskly to the corner store [860] To buy the paper he has read before. Vladimir Nabokov
About This Quote

In the first example, the poet is testing out new ideas. In method A, he writes without stopping to think about how his words will sound or look on paper. In method B, he writes by physically placing pen to paper and then guiding his thoughts into focus. The pen becomes an extension of his hand and guides him through the process of creating a poem.

Source: Pale Fire

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