SOURCE: A review of An “Objectivists” Anthology, in Poetry, Vol. XLI, No. IV, March, 1933, pp. 340-43.

In the following review of An “Objectivists” Anthology, Schappes attacks Objectivism as esoteric, nihilistic, lacking direction, and without a revolutionary, proletarian ideology.

If we are to understand Objectivism, there are three ideas in its program that must be stated and analysed. (1) “An objective,” as defined by Mr. Zukofsky first in his poem, “A,” and now in his editorial preface, is the “desire for what is objectively perfect.” That is, objectivists, like other poets, aim at writing first, poetry (“I believe it possible, even essential, that when poetry fails it does not become prose but bad poetry,” says William Carlos Williams), and then good poetry. Objectivists like to think that they differ from other poets and critics in stressing craftsmanship: “poetry defined as a job, a piece of work.” In this belief, of...