presentation, by the alternating structure of the Whole"—adapted to the given materials. In this review I shall concentrate upon Frank's use of the unspoken consciousness, for in Holiday, more than in any previous work, this is a major element of his aesthetic.
Considered as a structural mechanism, it provides the condensation, swiftness, and dramatic contrasts essential to such a design as Holiday. The psychology of a repressed people, seeking release in a revival tent, is given in seven lines, the last of which reads, "Come, preacher, lash us! Make us leap!" Virginia Hade's consciousness is unfolded in seven lyric pages. And whitetown and niggertown, taken as entities, are vividly opposed in the same number. I quote from this section:
"How can I rest in you when you stand and shout? I am weary with whiteness. To rule, to be civilized and chaste; you do not know what weariness it is. My woman yearns towards me in hunger, I am spent. All the world waves in darkling circles about my white uprightness, I am spent. I must lean down on you, earth, lie in you. O you are warmth and power, I am spent. Your pools draw my blood: your red soils blanch me dry. I must lie in you! But you who are my earth stand up and shout! How can I rest in you? How can I shut my eyes?
—Leave me alone . .
Don' you see we is lovin'?
Leave me alone . .
Don' tell me nothin',
How kin I listen to you
When mah love's lips
When mah love's arms
When de soft breast ob mak love
Closes roun' me like de earth
. . all laughin' flowers
Comes roun' me like de air
. . all smilin' breeze."
As functions of the larger organism, these crystallizations are effective and admirable.
Considered in relation to specific characters, they operate fanwise. By their means, the figures expand to an awareness which
