The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-07
CHANGE
THE
WORLD!
Bv JOSEPH FREEMAN


Those dreams were betrayed by the oourseoe HOW can you
democracy the exploit the many Those dreams
by the Communist society But it was be-
Whitman those dreams expanding down the vs the
future contemporary.
31sabout five weeks agomarked the 1l5th anniversary
ignored it, Perhaps that is
with the to bother about the past
Pound who belong much more to
the than Whitman Because it the voice OF bogeoS rea
today back to the classcm the 18th
century period the feudal counter-revou
ton the monarchy Whitman
essentially the utopn visions of the 18th Century So
The deoogues of the French Revolution with their
nsstence the material basis OF the world ano on universal ee
phoophc Whitman the poet OF those
poetic Whitman himself knew ne
belonged the future advanced Europeans knew IT. SOVIET writer's
know it; it time we knew it, too
Part of the American Mass
urH1rMAN WAS ERRAND BOY printer carpenter
editor vagabond always part of the American always its
poet That is why from the beginning repudated arisocstc
hokum about the dignity Of letters and the precise
rules STYLE "ulgarity" the pence that certain
;doo ord tboos orc not suitable for nov Above all he
prejudice that the life of the is
loudly announced himself the bard of
and by democracy he meant both
dignity of the He cee
braed "one self simple separate person yet uttered the
Democratic the word En- Masse"
being moved with the democratic instinct
himself rules for the writing of poetry which our young
revolutionary poets avoid all poical SMILES
nkehoods of natue-heathy exact simple
disdanng Be full of strong sensual germs And
consider this especially:
spirit the study of pictures of thinsand not
from the spirit that comes from the contact with things
sang spirit that from the contact
of factory mine and farm lives in his poems seer ne cries
steamng poems immigrants
continually coming landing in ariere the wigwam the
trail the hunters hut the atboat the maizeleaf the claim the
village the side the West
the other the Eastern Sea-
pastures forests in animals wild and
tame baos feeding
short curly in cities solid vast inland
with paved Streets with iron and stone edce ceaseess vehicles
See the electric telegraph stretching across the
continent the strong and quick locomotive departs
painting blowing the steam-whse See the poughmen pough
digging the numbeess factories Hear
the loud echoes of my there"
set this poem running proseforn
yet loses of its poetic qualities The poetry not from
metcal tricks but from vision and feeling springs Whitman
idea carried politics into
the of TASTE standards of beauty and
into philosophy theology The Americans he loved he tells
poem among cattle
woods the builders ee of ships and the wieders
and maul the drivers of horses Wokmen and work.
women" another will be with and shall
be with
Foresaw New Culture
OUT
culture recruiting myads able perceptive
tolerant devou real men, working and partakng
real life with calm and dignity comparing with superior carpenters
without
womanhood for sit great be be
man."
of Of
parting away
august dramas; ONLY only Lbertys
on but other nations preparing see tremendous entrances and
extsI combinations the solidarity
marching marching by millions;
landmarks of European kings removed this day the People
beginning their landmarks Gall others
questions this
energetic like lo leaving
the
These lines what Karl Liebknech said "The
to the Pople!" They said
People has comet" Whtans revolutionary
the democratic ideal capitalism
raised false Today capitalism dropped
mask of democracy its politicians prepare
tatohps literary critics Whitman
who celebrated democracy
'Warlike Flag of the Great Idea''
Whit is fahtin
classics society
past 1t is heir Walt Whitman,
He stands first revolutionary poets
of propaganda in his art Think of all the
that revolutionary
these lines: For the Idea!
mission of Poets Songs Of defiance
stead the flag know. wark flag of the great Ideal"
These lines what the proletarian
And when fight the spirit
Idea which inspires themhe idea
collision of social classes throughout
in the world not of the
but directly in contact with things themselves
like Whitman in broad elastic cadenc
and feelings of the
simplest worker stop and len understand