26
PARTISAN REVIEW
in his own way, why hasn't he copied the passage about Mayakovski where
Lenin said : "Yesterday I read in the
Izvestia
a poem by l\1ayakovski on
a political subject.
I
am not an admirer of Mayakovski's poetic genius
although
I
admit that
I
know very little in this field. But it has been
a long time since
I
have enjoyed so much poetry hom a political angle.... "
Eastman didn't quote these lines because when Lenin is opposed to
Mayakovski he is: a gentleman, a social engineer in Eastman's own image,
but when he praises l.Ivlayakovski he is only, you see, a confused "meta–
physician," "a dogmatic believer in dialectical materialism."
Alas for Mayakovski! For, "if poets may be compared to flowering
plants, Mayakovski was a great standing coarse-stemmed swamp-watered
weed." But Eastman! He is that "delicate putting forth of tendrils with
a view to timid bloom which poetry sometimes is, and is usually assumed
to be."
IMAGE
Mask-face of old grief, death-mask, massive
Visage uttering Joy; Joy sputtering; glorious oracle!
Joy, red on tongue with wind on frozen forehead;
Mouth open, Joy just-spoken, grief just-broken;
Clarion throat eloquent, quenching cries, eyes
Wide, soul of Hellelujah, Ah,
Fury of song, and drum and gong, fury
For the color of flags snapping on broomsticks,
Screw it in cromium on motor-cars,
Put the medallion on money,
Let it shake huge and quiet in star-water.
GENEVIEVE
T
AGGARD
