160
FRANK KERMODE
lect of the entire historical period which has now come to an end.
This is to misconceive the real significance of the Russian Revolu–
tion, and in particular to overlook the fact that it can have no
"lessons" for Western countries, while the chief lesson it has for
the East may well be that the era of proletarian uprisings is closed.
In a sense these criticisms are unfair. Trotsky now belongs to
history, and his importance no longer depends on what we think of
his own interpretation of the events in which he figured. It is easy
to see from Mr. Deutscher's biography what it was that held the
loyalty of his followers long after it was plain that the fight was
hopeless. Prometheus on his rock is a more attractive figure than
Zeus on his throne, and most people will continue to prefer the
former, though they may submit to the latter. Whence the virtual
certainty that Trotsky, not Stalin, will be the hero of the future
literary epic to take its place beside Buechner's
Danton. «Was
im
Lied soU
ewig
leben, muss im Leben untergehn."
George Lichtheim
POET.RY CHRONICLE
OUT IN THE OPEN. By Katherine Hoskins. Macmillan. $1.50.
POETS OF TODAY VI. Scribner's. $3.95.
THE CROW AND THE HEART. By Hayden Carruth. Macmillan.
$1.25.
IN AN IRIDESCENT TIME. By Ruth Stone. Horcourt, Broce. $3.75.
THE SELF·MADE MAN. By Reed Whittemore. Macmillon. $1.25.
SCRIMSHAW. By Winfield Townley Scott. Mocmillan. $1.25.
o
TO BE A DRAGON. By Marianne Moore. Viking. $2.75.
Nowadays fiction makes light of the Atlantic crossing,
but the English reader of poetry isn't, in the ordinary course, likely
to know American poetry written below the threshold of fame; of
the nine poets represented here only Miss Moore is known to me;
Consequently the observations and the premature generalisations
that follow have at least the advantage of coming strictly from the
