Nabokov and the art of poetry

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact that the genre of poetry had on Vladimir Nabokov's writing career. Poetry is the first step of every writer-to-be because many of them have started their writing career as a poet. While for the writer in general poetry is the starting point of the literary career and they later switch to prose, Nabokov continued to write poetry throughout his life, but critics have not paid sufficient attention to it. The poetic language he favored in his fiction stemmed from his love for the art of poetry. In Nabokov's novel "The Gift" poetry plays an important role. Nabokov, as an admirer of the Russian Formalism, showed a preference for the traditional form. Nevertheless, it will be argued that it is difficult to completely place his poetry under Russian Formalism.