44
P.dRTISAN REVIEW
the ·responsibility of the auditor is to his own function in the revolutionary
movement, to his unity with the poet in that movement. The relationship
is that of participation. Such a relationship is of the profoundest value
to the poet, and this changed atmosphere for the poet is certain to be a
great stimulus.
Problem of Subject:
The content of revolutionary poetry, it should
be emphasized, is limitless. It was in bourgeois art that the feeling existed
that glory had departed from the world, that subjects had been used up,
that there was nothing left but to play with forms. Revolutionary poetry
restores the sense of glory. In the new light of Marxism the world lies
before us to be rediscovered, everything in it to be found new and re–
marl~able.
Problem of Structure:
The greatest lack, to my mind, in today's
revolutionary verse, is structure. Partly as a result of the disintegration
of form, partly as a result of the influence of De Gourmont's dissociation
of ideas, and Joyce's stream of consciousness, the poetic unit has become
the line-in some cases the syllable-rather than the stanza. An outstand–
ing traditional characteristic of poetry is that it is an art of form and if
it abandons form it blurs its character. In even some of the best revolu–
tionary poems recently produced it would be possible to divide a poem into
three parts, rearrange the parts, and not affect the structure any. Such
amorphousness leads to dullness, to the din made by having a clamor
in
every line, to the lack of climaxes, to short-circuiting communication, and
therefore to ineffectiveness. The formal quality is especially important to
poetry because poetry is a social art.
Revolutionary Tradition:
It needs to be stressed that poetry even
before the war was insurgent. Poetry was dissatisfied with its status; in
revolt against the life around it. Poetry wanted an audience, a pleasant
life, a decent social setting. Capitalist society does not satisfy these wants.
There was no acceptance of li fe--only dissent in one form or another–
in grim satire as in Masters, in a secession from society-physically in
immigration, intellectually in obscurities intelligible only to choice spirits.
When the crisis, and the feeble and reactionary capitalist way of meeting
the crisis was revealed, then many of the dissenting poets realized where,
alone, their dissent could become effective.
