Pale Fire Quote

"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff -- and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky."

I first read these lines in high school, but they are still stuck in my brain. There's such an elegant simplicity here -- I've never been able to put my finger on it, but its power moves me. Unfortunately for anyone that reads these four lines here in this post, their effect will probably be lost. For some reason, the magic of the written word is reduced when found quoted online, especially in a blog, detached from the whole.