The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-16
BY ALFRED HAYES

WE extend revolutionary greetings
W to Dynamo" new journal Of
revolutionary verse, whose first issue
has just appeared.
This little book is slender-24
pages; it will appear every two
months; its voice is still uncertain,
but, as Mike Gold would say, it's a
husky baby with promising future.
There are probably hundreds of
poets in America today, writing from
mines, fields, cities, who are already
giving form to the new theme in
American life-the emergence of the
proletariat as q class becoming con-
scious of its role as protagonist of
the future classics society. inlet
tered workers Il have met workers
who write phonetic" poetry about
their homes and shops because they
can't spelD; young poets whose
careers began with the crack of the
Stock Market; and professional poets
who are trying to break the patterns
of despair and disillusion so fashion,
able in postwar literature-all are
consciously engaged upon the task
of creating new poetry, poetry
unknown in the textbooks Of school
teachers or the looey untermeyer
anthologieS.
Its first accents can already be
heard. In Dynamo" we catch these
new syllables, in many different
voices, in the direct straightforward
opening poem OF Naakon CheYalier,
Worker, Find Your Poet in the
subtler. more derivative rhythms OF
Horace Gregory's Night Watch From
Chicago in the personal traditional
lyrics Of Joseph Freeman. in the
simple factual workers Core
spondence" of Michael Gold, in Isl
dore Schneider's ironic "Comrade-
Mister" in the urbane sophisticate
work Of Kenneth Fearing, in the dra-
matte monologue, New Youngfel-
low" of Stanley Burnshaw.
There are many influences, differ
ent problems, different personal APP
proaches, determined by the indi-
vidual background, talent and con-
ception of the individual poet. All
Of which is good. Revolutionary
poetry should be varied, rich, multi
form. To the critic of revolutionary
poetry (there are as many or more
than the poets) Dynamo" will pre-
sent an excellent source for examples
to illustrate their theses. One can
for instance, choose the work OF
Horace Gregory, a poet of recognized
standing, and use it to illustrate the
failure or success Of the problem OF
migrating bourgeois" form with
revolutionary content. Granville Hicks
thinks it can't be done. Or one car
pick out Joseph Freeman's six poems
(why has he been hiding SO long?)
and praise or deny their highly sub
jective concern with the persona,
problems of a comrade in the move
ment. For this reviewer, all these
are still open questions. Having seer
how Louis Aragon (Red 'FRONT.' has
achieved a dynamic revolutionary
poetry with forms created while he
was Surrealist. ie., bourgeois poet
I am inclined to doubt Hicks an
swer. And having been moved by
these personal" subjective" lyrics
Of Joseph Freeman, I have wished
more of our revolutionary poets
turned to an honest expression Of
their secret" selves. This reviewer
believes, with one of the editors Of
Dynamo" that Joseph Freeman has
succeeded in widening the scope Of
revolutionary expression in poetry.
Knowing also how much workers
enjoy good revolutionary poetry, ]
hope that they will lend their sup
port to this little magazine of verse
and not permit it to die one of these
obscure financial deaths that SO often
oyertakes our magazines.
Dynamo" also publishes an un-
usual short story by James T. Farrell,
a young proletarian writer, author OF
the novels "Gashouse McGinty," and
Young Lonigan."