Art and ardor in the poetry and prose of Vladimir Nabokov

In discussing the form/content problem in literary critical theory, W. J. Bate says that the critic can stress "the medium of art without an equal emphasis on the value and range of what is being organized." (277) This, in a nutshell, is the principle behind this paper. Vladimir Nabokov's prose has long been examined by the professional critic with a focus on its formal niceties and self-referentiality "without equal emphasis" on its ideological and/or emotive content.; This paper uses this premise as the starting point for an examination of Nabokov's too-long-neglected poetry as collected in Poems and Problems (1970). This examination reveals poetry with romantic, life-affirming values while demonstrating poetic and psychological growth in their narrator. The growth of this poetic voice is exemplified by Nabokov's ever-growing range, surety, and formal control which reaches its apex or culmination in the large poem, "Pale Fire" from the novel of the same name.; These values and narrative growth form an evaluative backdrop against which the novels take on a new distinctness of outline. Invitation to a Beheading, The Gift, Pale Fire, and Lolita are found to have similar patterns and ideas as the poetry with both poetry and prose valuing growth, memory, and love.