Commentary, Lines 347-348: She twisted words though Line 408, a male hand Summary

Kinbote asserts that he, not Hazel, played word games by reversing the order of letters in words. Then, he comments on the use of "again" to rhyme with "explain." He tells the reader that he thinks he knows, but will not say, what poem Shade refers to in line 376. Kinbote then comments on an alternate phrasing of a line about the head of the English department, noting that the head of his own department was Professor Nattochdag and that the current English department chair (not necessarily the one from the time mentioned in the poem) circulated a memo objecting to Kinbote's editing "Pale Fire." Commenting on line 384, Kinbote specifies the book by Pope to which Shade refers.

Kinbote notes that Shade transformed the...