The poem "Fame", by Vladimir Nabokov, seems to begin with the description or rather a search for the description of a character to be placed in one form of literary sat, whether poem or prose. The character's physical description is already formulated in the narrator's mind, "waxlike, lean-loined, with red nostrils soot-stuffed", but the narrator is struggling with the placement of the character, whether human, important, or "nothing special--just garrulous dust." The narrator continues with the description of the character while still unable to decide his standing. Deciding that the narrator is without fame in line 20, the narrator decides that only those of meek hearts can listen to his character's words. One can assume then that those of proud hearts choose not to adhere to this speaker because he holds no fame therefore to them, no words.

In wearing "illustrations of various substantial arguments" in the form of...