13
The poems of Paul Eluard in Exemples, with their
bright hardness and their artfully chosen typographical
appearances suggest curious and tortured movements
a little beyond the reverberations of the words. They
are dominated by a piercing humor which is however
quite unlike Aragon’s or Jarry’s.
The conviction strengthens here and there among
the extreme young who are jealous of their liberty that
the modern folk-lore of which Apollinaire spoke is
taking shape. These young writers are of considerable
ingenuity and charm. Their work seems clean; they are
not tangled up in messy Parnassian paraphernalia; they
do not fumble with the old clichés. These observations
are the basis for my initial assertion that France is not
exhausted. Nor is Europe, in that case. One feels curiously
as if a great developing movement, a momentous front-
drive were getting under way.
On the other hand, the conviction comes that Ameri
cans need play no subservient part in this movement.
It is no occasion for aping European or Parisian tenden
cies. Quite the reverse, Europe is being Americanized.
, American institutions, inventions, the very local conditions
of the United States are being duplicated, are being „put
over“ daily in Europe. One has only to visit Berlin, for in
stance, in 1922 to witness this phenomenon.The complexion
of the life of the United States has been transformed so
rapidly and so daringly that its writers and artists are
rendered a strategic advantage. They need only react
faithfully and imaginatively to the brilliant minutiae of
her daily existence in the big cities, in the great
industrial regions, athwart her marvelous and young
mechanical forces.
WILL BRAY