284
I have promised myself for the end
of the war.
But this is not a prize-giving,
z.nd writers cannot be placed in a
league table. Do I see any pro–
found, dialectical change in the
direction of all writing? I do not.
I see a great deal of frustration, and
I see that war-time conditions in
the publishing trade have created
a free stamping-ground for sev–
eral kinds of amateur. The ama–
teur is an excellent weathercock.
If
he writes verse, then it is clearly
time for the professional to devote
himself to prose. And indeed I
think that this is a prose age.
There is too much in need of care–
ful analysis. There are times when
poetry is insufficiently explicit.
For certainly the war has clari–
fied my attitude towards the forms
PARTISAN REVIEW
one of writing. Or do I mean not
"clarified" but "hardened"? At
any rate, I no longer feel that the
mere fact of writing verse possesses
a special merit. On the contrary,
I am inclined to think that the
use of metrical forms calls for an
explanation.
It
is natural for men
to express themselves in prose,
whatever the theme and whatever
the approach. Otherwise, the wri–
ter of a love-letter would com–
monly display a tendency to break
spontaneously into verse.
If
a man
w-rites in verse, there has to be a
special reason for it. The tradi–
tional prestige of verse forms is
insu'fficient reason. Every time I
read a poem now, even if it is a
poem which I have already begun
to admire, I w:mt to know, "Could
this not have been done effectively
ART OF THIS
CENTURY
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April 17-May 12
Wolfgang Paalen
PAINTINGS
May 15-lune 9
Alice Rahon
Paalen
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GOUACHES, DRAWI NGS
June 12-July 7
The Women
ART OF THIS CENTURY
edited by Peggy Guggenheim
An ant-ho logy of the twe nt-ieth century's pioneer art move-
ments. Essays by Breton, Arp and Mondrian. 156 pages-69
halftone reproductions and cont-ributions of 57 artists.
COVER BY MAX ERNST
PRICE $3.00
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