The whiskey is assumed to be homemade: "race and the soil"
sounds as though it came from a man who wishes he could
plow the ground with his voice. It is in character that his
most successful country poems describe activities whose
pleasures may be enjoyed best in childhood or on trips, like
"Fishing in Summer."
In the city there is nothing but
Stereopticans of s.kyscrapers lusting the sky
while the u;orld at large is no better, for
Without
kindness
Airplanes circle the universe.
No wonder his moods easily -achieve the death of his ideas.
He was just coming back from the Soviet Union, and as
the boat left shore:
It seemed clear that life would last
Forever, separate in its final hody,
Free of sufferance.
Until the last ship
Beat horizon, the thought remained:
It weathered out beyond Finland,
Forgotten upon the Swedish coast.
Honest but unhappy traveler.
However,
in the third section, "Communications from
the Revolution," whenever Macleod gets away from under
the habitual rhetoric of the earlier poems, he becomes swifter,
more controlled, simpler, capable of narrative-in short, a
better poet. But for this poetic victory to be assured, vigilance
and action are required in other fields beside that of his
craft.
CLARENCE WEINSTOCK
CORRESPONDENCE
Sanctions Against Williams
To the Editors:
I found the symposium on "What is Americanism?" in
your April issue stimulating.
It's good to see many of the
best American writers knocking down the bogey of opposi-
tion between America's past and: its Marxian future.
Robert Herrick,
I think, is very sincere but has not kept
pace with the march of events. Dreiser is his old blundering
self, vigorous and forthright;
and, as ever, he smacks hard
at reaction. The only one who seems to have set out to make
an ass of himself is William Carlos Williams. Where has
the man been living all these years? You might think Amer-
ica never had its Federalist and later its Whig parties, and
now its Liberty League, not to mention the Republicans and
Democrats. How about slavery, which it took a bloody war
to get rid of, Mr. Williams? He can't see economic facts
behind the official myths of liberalism and democracy.
The "good humor" that he sees as the essence of American-
ism is about as scientific a notion as blood-letting is to modern
medicine. If the American masses have so far, as he claims,
not taken to revolutionary literature,
they are even less
aware of Mr. Williams'
particular brand of poetry. In -fact.
the whole school of modernist writing of which Mr. Wil-
liams is such a shining light has made no dent on the Amer-
ican conscioumess. The picture of America that Mr. Wil-
liams is trying to sell us is a tintype of reaction. But in your
symposium Josephine Herbst,
Newton Arvin and Joseph
Freeman have indirectly refuted his ideas much more effec-
tively than I could.
San Francisco, Cal.
CHARLES FORREST
[Editorial nott:
Space does noet permit the publication in
this issue of the numerous other letters commenting on the
symposium which we have received. The letters reflect a
lively interest in the subject, which accounts, perhaps, for
the spirited exceptions taken ill most of them to William
Carlos Williams'
point of view. His "uninformed notions of
Marxism and Americanism," to quote from one letter, are
roundly condemned by most of the correspondents.
Needless
to say, the editorial position of
PARTISAN REVIEW
is utterly
opposed to the direction of thought shown in Mr. Wil-
liams' contribution.
J
From a Young Man
To the Editors:
On one occasion in the past I first came across the maga-
zine,
PARTISAN REVIEW,
and was delighted at so fine a publi-
cation. It is with no less gratification that I read the March
issue of the present ocmbined magazine.
As one new to the general literary trends I find that your
magazine is an excellent source of guidance and stimulation.
I want particularly to understand and appreciate proletarian
literature and I believe there is a great number of young
persons like me who are in need of help in being guided
toward a consciousness of the significance and value of such
works.
Alan Calmer's article on the controversy over Marxist
literature is an example of the kind of material I think to be
extremely helpful. Mr. Bradford's
Blue With White Dots
leaves one feeling as though he had sat on the porch with
the cannery workers that cool evening. I liked it very much.
One story impressed me particularly and that was
The
Runners
by Pnidencio de Pereda. His style resembles rather
notably that of Ernest Hemingway,
possessing in addition a
definite Spanish flavor.
The section on poetry contained several interesting pieces,
especially Kenneth Fearing's,
NffJer, Never, Never,
with its
rushing, run-on style. I am looking forward to future issues
of your magazine for the reasons I've indicated above. Mean-
while, my best wishes for its continued success.
Brooklyn, N.
Y.
MICHAEL GARRAMONE
MAY,
I
9 3 6
