Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-07-01 / 7. szám
FRATERNITY 9 hair in perfect reproduction. Finta noticed the most minute lines and moldings of Holloway’s face and head. The eyes are those of a genius, writer and philosopher, and if the rest of the face is covered alone reflect benevolence and kindness. If we examine only the mouth and the nose, however, we receive an impression of the tenacious energy Holloway needed to change the public’s view of Whitman. Finta was then commissioned to do a Whitman plaque, subsequently unveiled in Brooklyn, for the Walt Whitman Memorial Committee, of which Holloway was chairman. To obtain a clear picture of the poet, Finta studied all available details. He found a strong resemblance between Whitman and the Hungarian poet, Endre Ady, Finta’s former classmate in Nagyvarad. Both Whitman and Ady won fame and provoked prejudice with their love poems. Both wished to create a better world. Whitman, Finta learned, was opposed to conventional forms, considering them an obstacle to poetic expression. In his opinion, the work of a poet must express his personality, for he is able to write nothing that does not emanate from his own feelings. Whitman glorified America as the most productive and poetic country in the world. He recommended complete isolation from Europe and foresaw the decisive role of the United States in the struggle between East and West. In Whitman, Finta underscored everything that was positive in the cultural history and development of the United States. He focused attention on those of Whitman’s works which every American must know, selecting from them scenes which have made the poet immortal. Like the masters of medieval art, Finta reproduced these with the aid of allegories, but in their modern interpretation. In his opinion, art is the expression of scientifically observed thought in allegorical symbols. Naturally, this does not exclude the need
