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142 ВОЗРОЖДАЯ ЦЕЛОСТНОСТЬ ОБЩЕСТВОЗНАНИЯ
DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606-2016-14-4-142-155
THE BIRTH OF MARX'S POETIC PHILOSOPHY AND ITS INTENTION -REVALUATION OF MARX'S EARLY POETRY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
Yuwen LI,
PhD in political philosophy, Vice Dean, School of Marxism, Peking University, Pekin, P.R. China, e-mail: [email protected]
R The poetic works by young Karl Marx has long been neglected in modern
A academic fields and studies on Marxism. Normally, most scholars view these poems
C as love poetry which bears nothing more than adolescent impulsion and thirst for
O love. Not only the motif is dull and singular but also the significance is narrow. This
0 paper retorts the prejudice on Marx's poetry and expounds on the poetic theme and C philosophical or even political economic significance of these early poems, believing s in the continuation of romantic influence and transition on young Marx and his
philosophical care revealed in these poems and thereof the political economic perspectives of the undergoing production system and social relations of capitalist society he lived in. In brief, Karl Marx has exhibited humanitarian ethos, critical
1 thinking and aesthetic consciousness in his poems which serve as the best evidence of the origin of his poetic philosophy and political economy. In these poems, Karl
° Marx's sensible intelligence paves the way for his philosophical thinking and political
economic perspective in his coming research and investigation in philosophy and ^ political economy of human society.
4 Keywords: Karl Marx; poetic philosophy; political economy
JEL classifications: B14; B31
ЗАРОЖДЕНИЕ ПОЭТИЧЕСКОЙ ФИЛОСОФИИ МАРКСА И ЕЕ НАПРАВЛЕННОСТЬ: ПЕРЕОЦЕНКА РАННЕЙ ПОЭЗИИ МАРКСА
Юйвэнь ЛИ,
PhD в области политической философии, заместитель декана, Школа марксизма, Пекинский университет,
Пекин, КНР, e-mail: [email protected]
Ранним поэтическим творчеством Карла Маркса довольно долгое время пренебрегали в современных академических кругах; исследователи марксизма обходили его стороной. Как правило, большинство ученых рассматривают
© Ю. Ли, 2016
эти произведения как любовную поэзию, выражающую подростковую увлеченность, жажду любви - не более. Иными словами, - и идея банальна, и содержание - узко. Данная статья опровергает это предубеждение по отношению к поэзии Маркса и раскрывает поэтическую тематику в связи с философской, а зачастую и политико-экономической, значимостью его раннего творчества. Так, автор полагает, что романтические влияния на молодого Маркса и его увлеченность философией, нашедшие отражение в его поэзии, выражают политэкономические взгляды Маркса на современную ему систему производства и социальные отношения, характерные для капиталистического общества, в котором он жил. Одним словом, Карл Маркс продемонстрировал в своих стихах этос гуманитария, критическое мышление и эстетическое чувство. Эти стихи - лучшее свидетельство происхождения его поэтической философии и политической экономии. В них тонкий ум Карла Маркса прокладывает дорогу для развития его философского наследия и политэкономиче-ских исследований.
Ключевые слова: Карл Маркс; поэтическая философия; политическая экономия
I. Introduction ^
Karl Marx is a man of time and history, his deep influence upon the contemporary °
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world is unprecedented. His outstanding contribution to the communism which changes the world for the recent 160 years is quite well-known to the world, yet what is unknown is his literary contribution to human ethos through all his early poems. In fact, Karl Marx is not only an excellent philosopher, but also an outstanding writer. He wrote quite a number of poems before and during his college years. Unfortunately, these poems were taken for granted as of unimportant and therefore received less attention by researchers § on Marxism. In fact, most people believe that Karl Marx was too young to be taken as a O real thinker. Therefore, what lies between youth and maturity often were taken more a ^ void than a link in the case of Karl Marx. This paper, through a careful study of the poetic theme and actual text, argues that the gap between adolescence and manhood can be the distance between confusion and edification, negation and achievement, romantic self-involvement and the reality of life in the world, most of the poems by young Marx have already taken serious subjects born with solemnity of humanistic and social importance. They are, in fact, the special record of the formation of Marx's world outlook and life axi-ology. What's more, we may observe an obvious continuity between Marx's poems and his later works, either in perspective of economics, philosophies or in scientific socialism. These connections may fall into two categories, one is style of writing, such as his fond of metaphor, his use of allusions, his construction of complex sentence, the second is subject matter, even though clear evidence of Greek Tragedy may be found in Marx's poetry, yet almost all the subjects he later probed has ever been toughed in his early poetry, even thought the early ideas may be shallow and immature, or ever greatly changed years later. In this sense, these poems bear many philosophical propositions which prove them to a world literature as of great importance to be the legacy of Marx, especially to any study of his later thought which wants to take Marx as a complete thinker.
II. The subject matter and meaning of Marx's poetry
(1) why Marx's poetry receives less attention?
The fact that later researchers pay less attention and humble appraisal to Karl Marx's poetic works attributes to the following reasons: a modest comment by Marx himself and
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his friends, the hasty conclusion by his biographer and the inadequacy of study on the formation history of Marxism. First, in a letter dated Nov.1837 which Marx wrote to his father, his abasement upon those poems goes like the following: nevertheless, they are purely idealistic, censure to the era, unsteady and fuzzy sentiments, lack of naturalness, sheer fabrication, complete opposition of present and past, rhetorical arrangement in place of poetic thoughts, boundless and far-flung yearning exposed in various forms, all these make the poems loosen and fall into pieces (The Complete Anthology..., 1982. Pp. 9-10). This comment echoes with that of Friedrich Engels in his later years and also that of Laura, Marx's second daughter when she passed Marx's manuscripts to Franz Mehring for Marx's biography. Second, Marx's biographer, Franz Mehring, regards the poems as "romantic sound of harps" which belong to "sheer immature works" (Mehring, 1920. Pp. 25-28). His comment goes like that: "these youthful poems bear no more than trite romantic tones, with no actuality at all. Besides, they show only inept skills in writing poems." (Mehring, 1985. P. 19). Third, modern studies on Marx's thought have laid emphasis on his philosophy after1840s and his social reformation theory afterwards, especially on Marx's research interest, also where his great achievement came to spotlight, in the economic-political issues in the social science sphere. Therefore, the traditional interpretation of Marx's academic history and his A works always take the stand of a postponed starting-point at the beginning of 1840s when c Marx finished his college life and turned to be social labor. At that time, his interest has o shifted from literature to philosophy, his logic of thinking has shifted from romanticism to
0 realism. However, all the above three reasons provide no solid proof for underestimating
1 and neglecting Marx's early poems. Even though Marx himself did not sing high praise for S his poems, yet he never put a denial on all the early literary works. On the contrary, he
was very positive to the fiery sensibility and enthusiastic pursuit harbored in those poems << ,admitting that writing poems, especially love poems was the most pleasing and agreeable subject at that time. And what's more, he did intend to publish a book of poetry. Wolfgang 1 Becker wrote in his book entitled Karl Marx as the following: "even though it wasn't long
< for this young poet criticizing his own work, yet the two poems published in 1841 did receive good comments." (Beker, 2001. P. 25). Prawer also pointed out that when Karl Marx began his analysis on his own poems with his intelligence of criticism, it does not mean
< that he is doubtful with the function and effect of his works to his real life. He explained ^ to his father that one usually writes love poems in important transitional period in life so 4 as to 'erect a monument for what he has experienced, so that they can regain the position
in real action as in our emotional life.' These poems, which are the result of past experience, whence created, would be touchable to kind reader (Prawer, 1980. P. 25). After a humble self-evaluation on his poems, Karl Marx put forward his ideas on the purpose and artistic spiritualism of writing poems. He paid attention to the natural appetency existed in between life transition opportunity and lyric sentiments, declaring that in the moment of transiting, it's easy for anyone to have sentimental feelings, for every change of life image in one way maybe an ending masterpiece, in the other maybe a prelude of a new great piece. Poems written in these occasions tend to help the glory of life last for long (Marx and Engel's Comment., 1960. P. 165). Next, as we mentioned earlier, that the first biographer Mehring apparently made a hasty judgement while he heard the brief comment by Friedrich Engels which passed on by Marx's daughter. No doubt, Mehring's first comment had a strong influence upon the later researchers. Contrasting to the earlier biographer, the writers on Marx today are seemingly careful and subjective in dealing with Marx's poems. One example is David Mclellan, who comments on Marx's poetry with detailed nicety. Finally, the inadequacy of academic study on Marx's early thought, which may be the real reason why Marx's poems are overlooked in general. I believe it is out of the traditional rigid way of thinking that causes this missing. For, to the readers and researchers, especially the one who defines himself as Marxist researcher will easily skip the young Marx's thought because he will naturally assume a youngster has no important thinking and ear-
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lier Marx has only adolescent yearnings common to anyone of his age. Without a careful study of the continuity of Marx's thought, it's easy to fall short in getting the deep world of his poems. However, it is obvious that young Marx should not be overlooked if a complete Marx is to be fully understood. As Wessell has put it as "it is unreasonable to neglect Marx's poems unconsciously or to take them as parenthesis to his autobiography" (Wessell, 2008. P. 5). As a matter of fact, if we are reasonable enough, we would believe that Marx's thought has maintained a gradual process till its maturity, it is not marked by a sudden moment, or by an abrupt idea coming to his head. Therefore, a careful study of Marx's early poems may indeed help us to gain a better understanding of Marx and his theory, deepening our recognition of Marx's inner world and life experience, his character, his ideal and his dream even when he was young.
(2) The subject matters of Marx's poetry
Up to now, thanks to the MEGA contribution, a total number of 164 poems were found written by young Marx when he was a teenager. A vivid depiction of cosmos and life, a penetrating revealing of ego and others, and even a brilliant and rich imagination of dream and reality were thoroughly exposed in his poetic pieces. His explanation of the ^ nature and society, even though intermingled with his own knowledge, his feelings, his willpower, serves as a forceful argument of the contextual thought later appeared in his ^ theories. Normally, due to the age of the author when he wrote the verse, in addition 5 with many of his poems are entitled To Jenny, many of his poems are taken for granted as £ love poems. It is necessary to point out that many of the poems entitled To Jenny actu- o ally are not sheer love poems at all. They have been mistakenly interpreted only for the ° sake of name. In fact, besides the poems dealing with Marx's love towards Jenny, Marx has written quite a number of sonnets, epics, pasquinade, balladry which covers not only ^ the outpouring of his emotion but also his description of natural scenery, bearing not only his life experience but also his design for the future, embodying not only his ambi- g tion but also his expectation, expressing not only his satire towards social reality but also ^ irony to any reaction to process. Therefore, Marx's poetry deals with a wide coverage of O subject matters ranging from nature to society which includes not only social figures but O also social incidents. David Mclellan therefore proposed in his book that Karl Marx took ^ Heinrich Heine, Johann W.Goethe and Johann C.F.Schiller as examples, believing that his poems have covered all the subject matters ever touched by German Romanticism with only exception of political reaction and nationalism (Mclellan, 2008. P. 17). What still worth mentioning is Wessell, who conducted a detailed research upon Marx's poem years ago, has explained some of the typical subject matters in his own way. He picked some poems as examples. To name but a few, Wessell thought that Creation was a perfect description of "perpetual spirit of creation" through the formation of universe gestated in a romantic way. In the Singer's love, Marx set up the logic of thinking following the route of "love - soul - poem". In Two Heavens, Marx equated the significance of sun to love and universe in the same way. In Poetry, he shifted from the creative spirit of cosmos to the creative spirit of human being. In Awakening, Marx highlighted a bardian man with ambition. In Song to the stars, Marx disclosed the opposition of nature and human ethos, the contradiction between man and object. In Harmony and Longing, the pain suffered from subjective redemption of man and ego dissociation was thoroughly exemplified. In Human life, Marx got so close to revealing the metaphysical pattern between the subjectivity and objectivity of man, and that of the internal life and exterior flowing objects, etc. (Wessell, 2008). In order to get a better understanding of Marx's gist revealed in all his poems, I now classify these poems into four types according to the object discussed and the key words used in the text. The first type is on emotion and consciousness, which includes the poems dealing with Marx's emotional conditions and perceptive feelings. The key words used in this type of poems are as follows: miss, complain, feeling, pain, torment, misery, wish, aspi-
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ration, despair, adoration, happiness, bitterness, fantasy, idol, nightmare, etc. The second type is on natural objects and scenery, which includes the poems depicting the natural scenes and legendary objects from physical world. The key words used in the poems are cosmos, sky, night, ocean, mountain, forest, wave, starlight, rose, light, cloud, flame, sun, moon, lightning, storm, brook, lanneret, etc. The third type is on figures of social life and imaginary world, which includes poems taken personnel from different walks of life and fabricated or apotheosized figures as subject. The key words used in this type of poems are as follows: singer, troubadour, maiden, lad, mater, gaffer, vrouw, boatman, bellman, woman-harpist, violinist, doctor, poet, judge, knight, royal family, godfather, jinni, goddess, demon, ghost, elf, fairy, goblin, nessie, etc. The fourth type is on the artistic and historical figures, which includes poems commenting on actual life figures and historical figures. The main objects and figures appeared in these type of poems are Albergin and Rosamond, Charles the great, Knight Gluck, Homeros, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Fichet, Hegel, etc. From the generalization of the category and connotation of these object and key words listed above, we may find out that the poems by Karl Marx are always related to two dimensional perspectives, one is the connection between universe and human life, which might be termed as the macro-dimension, the other is between history and A reality, the micro-dimension. Individuals and society are the two main components ac-c tive in both dimensional categories. In either dimensional category, two central themes 0 of love and career are always in existence. That is to say, Karl Marx's poems always deal
0 with the subject of love and career. In dealing with all these complex objects in his
1 poems, Karl Marx was persistent in expressing his emotion and recognition to the outS side world, either in description and narration or in exposition and argumentation. As a
young man of the right time, Karl Marx described the dreamy consciousness and obscure
< feelings entangled with the young mind in a rather philosophical way, that is to say, he enlarged the extension of a floating imagination to couplet categories such as divine
1 universe and earthly world, darkness and light, death and renascence, sense and sensi-
< bility. Among all the philosophical categories covered in his poems, Karl Marx laid much emphasis on the inner response and psychological reaction of human being to the outside world through his own experience. In this way, in defining the relations between and
< among the cosmos, human life and nature, some concepts are unavoidably revealed and in-^ terpreted in a particular manner, such as, love, hatred, hesitation, suppression, alienation, 4 evil, challenge, opposition, etc. In dealing with all these subject matters, what we can perceive from the poems are Marx's glorification of the beautiful and castigation of the evil. However, his pursuit of light future and challenge of the darkness exhibited a strong force of a fortitude figure.
(3) The connotations of Marx's poetry
In traditional Chinese saying, there is a proverb goes like that poems represent ambitions. What we learn from this proverb is that poems manifest the author's ethos, willpower and ambition, express his emotion, psychology and ideal as well. It is quite obvious that Karl Marx's poetry embodies the impulsiveness and rashness of his emotion as a youth, which would be the most superficial meaning we can get while reading these poems. But on the other side, it will be too shallow if all these poems were taken only as an adolescent love book. There are apparently a continuation in either thought and logic in Marx's philosophy deeply buried in the creation and expression of these poems even though romantic talks can be found everywhere in the poems.
As to the connotation of the poems, I believe the protruding notions are related to Marx's glorification in loyalty of love, his extreme hatred to bondage in life and expectation to freedom, his strong will in pursuit for victory, bravery to challenge the suppression and evil in inner and exterior world. Here, the complete anthology of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels summarizes as the following:
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In the three poetic books dedicated to Jenny. von. Weistwarran, He could no hold back pouring his adoration towards his fiancee, he sings for the loyalty of love and worries due to the anxiety coming from all the hardships from the family and society. At the same time, his wish to achieve is so firm that he takes no hesitation to give up anything for success. From the volume dedicated to his father and record from the Memoir and Notebook by his sister Sophia, we might perceive Marx's thirst for Knowledge and his erudition in literature and history, his fighting spirit to the evil and darkness, his sense of justice, his perseverance to truth and beauty, his opposition to bondage as well (The Complete Anthology..., 1995b. See preface. P. 2).
In almost all the poems, as far as the form is concerned, Karl Marx combined his peculiar vision of interpreting with unrestrained imagination and artistic language in revealing his personal feelings to the inner and outside world he lives in. All his elucidation upon the ideal world originates from the true faces of the real world, no matter how hard it is. Since love is usually taken as one of the central themes and the most prevailing subject in his poems, we now take the love poems as example to conduct a textual and contextual analysis so as to find out the significance of 'loving words' by young Karl Marx. As we all know, young Marx wrote many lyrics to express his love while he wandered through emo- ^ tional life in his teens. A rough estimation of this type of poems amounts to 56, which bear with the name of To Jenny as the title or subtitle. Therefore, it is not strange at all ^ when one takes them as love poetry at the first glance and thus believes there's nothing 5 new in these love poems. However, things are not as simple as one usually taken it to be £ in the case of Karl Marx because love is not the only central theme and subject matter in o Marx's life and psychological world at that time. In fact, all the difficulties bothering him ° so much are not the usual disagreement from family prejudice but the conflict between love and career. It is the expectation of love and fear of losing love that baffles Marx, ^ depressing or instigating his psychological and physical responses. In some of the early poems, Marx imaged the departure and then union with his lover, followed by all sorts of g conjecture relating to betray or loyalty of human feelings. What is noticeably inlayed in ^ all these mental activities of Karl Marx can also be interpreted in the contradictory theme O in his mind, that is to struggle for love or struggle for life. In reality, love is part of life O to us, but as a teenager, Marx has to deal with the superiority of career first with great ^ entanglement of sentimental feelings among which love is that one he would not like to give up at all. Therefore, all the imaginations he expressed in the poems are in line with his caring of love and career. We can not deny that fact that he wrote a lot on love, but right behind the words, there have always been care for career, that's why we can find his intention and opinion on knowledge, ideal, thought, ambition and success. Here is an example:
Look, I certainly can write books of a thousand, With the name of Tenny on each and every page, Rich minds contained in all the volumes, Feast of centuries, minds of perseverance, The sweet rhythm, quiet lingering, All bearing the warmth and heat of sunlight, Like the godly merry and painful melancholy, Are all my knowledge and my dream
(The Complete Anthology., 1995b. P. 678).
At the same time, it is quiet necessary to mention again that even all the poems which bearing the name of Jenny, are no more than gifts. As Wessell has put it, the specific figure in these love poems can never only be Jenny at all. What's more, what Marx deals is love, a common topic which is obviously the perpetual theme of all human being lasting forever. Deep in the heart of Karl Marx, "life without love is cruel and infertile" (Prawer, 1980. P. 15). No doubt, this judgement is of common concern instead of personal
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business. Of course, the love story of Karl Marx is a personal matter as well as a common issue to any young man of his age in terms of the hesitation in making choice when facing psychological dilemmas and mental shocks. Prawer gave an example to illustrate the transcendental complexity and contradictory situations Marx encountered when he was far away from Jenny. His example is the poem entitled Pride of Man in which he pointed out that Marx's view on love was not as narrow as it thought to be. The beginning sentence of this poem pictured a crowding image of modern cities which mansions and skyscrapers gathered, people suppressed under the pressure of modernity. The inhibition and nervousness that the city brought to people, which were defined as alienation in Marx's later works, can only be cast off through one's effort to recognize his limitless power buried in his soul and the knowledge to admit his own strength. Only by a self-redemption can one save himself, only by help himself can one be helped. The transcendental and artistic conception revealed in this poem surpassed the narrow sense of man-woman relations and sublime the content of love in a broad perspective (Prawer, 1980. P. 16). Under such circumstance, it is also reasonable that author develops a type of feeling of self-inundation and swelling arrogance to despise worldly evils which appeared frequently in the poems. With this elation in mind, the poet can not help imaging himself as superior and controlA ling to nature. In many occasions, young Marx's confession of his love and self-recognition c as heroic gods is thus unavoidable. To be exact, the category of words such as titan, war-0 bler, manito, conveys the magic-realistic ideas of Marx as he wishes himself to be a saver
0 of his love, his world and the world of others. These words are symbolic to interpret Marx's
1 psychological world at that time from the perspective of romanticism as well as realism S because they are the combination of actual plight and imaginary success.
Worries, fears, craze, pain and hatred, all these mood were depicted in Marx's poems
< and exposed to the public, but apparently they are not only the single and simple human feelings of the author, nor even that of the natural feeling of mankind. In fact, they are
1 the inner reflection of macro-cosmos in the internal psychological and physical world.
< At the same time, they bear natural as well as cosmic meanings. That is to say, they are the language and bridge between the internal and external world of a poet with vision to human life. As Tocqueville explained that all things related to the existence, evolution
< and future of human being may as well become the most abundant resources of poem (De ^ Tocqueville, 2006. P. 597), the subject matters of poetry in Marx's literary world deal with 4 the entire life of all mankind, that is, the spiritual and psychological activities exhibit
throughout the aspects of lives in economic, political, cultural, scientific, literary sphere, either individually or collectively. The two microcosmic subject matters of love and career are intricately interwoven in the dimensional exhibition of universe, life and society. In all, to expose an extensive world in grand narratives through depiction of concrete life experiences, is the uniqueness and precedence of Marx's poetry compared with his peer poets or even the poet before him. Due to the exposure of relations in between man and the society he lives, Marx could continue his thinking even when his professional interest shifted from literature to philosophy and law and his devotion shifted from personal concern to human life.
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III. The ethos and value of Marx's poetic philosophy (1) The connection between poetry and philosophy
It is well known that poetry and philosophy belong to different artistic forms of science, yet they are related in the sense of exhibiting and unveiling the nature of the world. An American author, Stanley Rosen disproves the accusation of poetry by Plato in his book entitled The Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry. He expounded on the innate connections between poetry and philosophy through a careful study of the development of philosophy from Plato, Nietzsche to Heidegger. Rosen reached the conclusion that poetry and philosophy are not opposing to each other in nature. He pointed out that philosophy with-
out poetic gist is no better than poetry without philosophical theme, if philosophy bore no poetry or vice versa, then both poetry and philosophy are not agreeable, they are unworthy of commenting (Rosen, 2004. P. 210). In my opinion, the connections between poetry and philosophy lie in the following: firstly, both poetry and philosophy are in the position to care about the extensive category of objects in either physical or psychological world. They share the same subjective world as well as the objective world in reality and imaginary fields. A Russian literary figure, V.G. Belinskiy proposed that poetry is truth in perceptual intuition form. He believes that the real creator of poetry is nothing but physical notions which are visible and sensible through perception and interpretation of a poet. Therefore, poetry takes the same logic and content with philosophy (Belinskiy, 1979. P. 57). Secondly, Poetry has the similar function with philosophy in the sense that both can interpret and illustrate whatever the author wishes. They pacify the soul and heart so as to edify or to redeem. A well-known poet, T.S.Eliot defines poetry and philosophy as the diversified languages of the same world. In accordance with this definition, we may conclude that poetry and philosophy share not only the similar pattern in understanding and explaining the world, but also similar function. Thirdly, Poetry has great influence upon philosophy in the process of human spiritual maturity, and vice versa. Wilhelm Dilthey, a German philosopher ^ took poetry as the definite tool to understand certainty in the world through thinking which expressed all the stuff appearing in human mind, including various kinds of ob- ^ jects, values and decisions. Therefore, He believes that poetry reflects one's world outlook 5 (Dilthey, 2001. P. 243). At the same time, he reviews the history of poetry, declaring that £ poetry once paved the way for the birth of philosophy in ancient Greece, then the revival o of philosophy in Renaissance Period. Up to now, poetry is still continuously affecting the ° thinking and logic of philosophers in a regular and steady way. As what on earth is the effect on the development of philosophy, Dilthey made clear that poetry prepared for the ^ creation of philosophical attitudes towards the world since it had developed some kinds of objective considerations of world order free of purport and personal interest (Dilthey, g 2001. Pp. 253-254). To generalize the relations between poetry and philosophy, I now ^ introduce the proposition of Novalis, an eighteen century German poet who studied phi- O losophy under the guidance of Fichte, which supposes the concept of "poetry of poems". O Novalis believed that poetry was primarily the supreme form of philosophical knowledge, ^ ie, poetic philosophy or philosophic poetry (Garbtova, 2007. P. 133). He insisted on the decisive effect of poetry upon philosophy, which can be testified by poetry's disclosing of the most significant intercommunity on limit and infinity of the universe and the mystery of interaction between man and nature. Based on this argument, Novalis alleged that poetry might be the key to philosophy, "the aim and the meaning of philosophy." (Collection of Novalis, 1965. P. 528). Of course, it is obvious that philosophy is not equal to poetry in every means. There are seeming disagreements between them. But no matter what form poetry may take up, a true poem should always bear philosophical elements.
(2) The philosophical nature of Marx's poems
Young Marx was influenced by the romantic literary trend passed on in Germany when he was still a teenager. He developed pretty good personal relations with some of the renowned poets at that time and took up the romantic style in his poetic writings. In no more than a few years, Marx wrote quite a number of poems featuring the style of romanticism. The connection of Marx's poems to literary romanticism which once was prevailing in Germany can be seen in either the style or the theme of his poems. In the aspect of style, Marx took up a free imagination of symbolism and a casual monologue to express his feelings toward nature and life. His mind was open which helped him in combining elegant verse with frenetic mood in natural ways. In narrative or descriptive verses, Marx focused on his taste of objective experience derived from the real life. While in dealing with emotional affair, Marx became so imaginative that he often described a powerful
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figure in transformation who was daring to challenge the worldly order. Marx's love poems inherited the traditional romance designed to "replace the dissatisfaction with beautiful ideals". Mclellan described the style of Marx's poem as a type of subjectivism which bore self-appreciation usually seen on some creative and isolated artists (Mclellan, 2008. P. 17). However, I believe that Marx is not a total romanticist even in his poetic style. In most of his poems, we can easily trace the evidence of realism on the ground that he based most of his thinking on practical life. His ideal of life and aim for struggling can never be farfetched from his real life despite his wild imagination and dreamy ambition. In the light of this certain way of writing, I agree with MacIntyre that Marx's poetry and legend served not only as a narration of the earthly life, but also as a vivid exhibition of life patterns existed in this narrated life (MacIntyre, 2003. P. 157). In this sense, the realistic meaning of Marx's poems goes beyond the romantic meaning, resulting in the enhancement of realistic philosophy for Marx's theory. Because of the limitation of wording, Marx's poems certainly are not suitable to take the form of solemn philosophy, but they've already send out messages of philosophy.
Now it comes to the aspect of poetic themes. As to romanticism, poetry offers principles concerning mankind as well as universe. Even though they always tend to be tran-A scendental, the romantic poets in general believe that the religious mission of poetry lies c in revealing of the meaning of reality. Therefore, romantic poems may as well take real 0 life as their contextual ground. Prawer mentioned that Marx's poetic themes can also be
0 found in other works by romantic poets, such as Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, LudI wig Tieck, E.T.A.Hoffmann, Ludwig Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, not even S to mention that of Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe and Heinrich Heine. In fact, what Marx surpassed romantic poets in significance
< is that he took reality as the foot-stand and starting point of his poetic logic. In his own poems, Marx concreted his feelings and mood in particular objects, unique characters and
1 special circumstances, thus releasing his interpretation of the outside world in a way of
< spiritual wandering. He took much care of the inner reflection of the objective world and disclosed the self-struggle of human being in almost all his poems.
One of the features depicting the philosophical nature in Marx's poems is his consid-
< eration of the practical life. It is the care of the real world and thus practical life that helps Marx to shake off the notional entanglement of romanticism and to turn to realistic
4 outlooks. The practical using of many natural objects and phenomena provides enough evidence to Marx's realistic view harbored in the bottom of his heart. As to the frequent appearance of elves, sirens or gods in his poems, it is necessary to learn of their symbolic noumenon and his artistic thinking in employment of these imaginary figures. Even for the floating inspirational objects that Marx himself mentioned, they are out of nowhere but the real life and physical world. Therefore, all poems by Karl Marx came out of his life experience, which undoubtedly pave the way for the development of his thought. Mehring once pointed out that the realistic images in Marx's poems were short of the magic and charm which romanticism usually possesses, on the contrary, Wessell believed that it was Mehring's mistake that he supposed romance completely faded away in Marx's poem. The decreasing of romantic meaning in Marx's poem is no dying of romance in the genius' mind than the radical evolvement of romanticism along with the changes happened in all round of the society (Wessell, 2008. P. 5).
The other feature exhibiting the philosophical nature of Marx's poems lies in the subject matters and categories which were further proposed in Marx's works where he expounds on the formation of dialectical materialism. Here is an example, the subject of independence and creation repeatedly mentioned in his early poems were brought up and sublimed in detail in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844. it goes as the following:
No any existing object can be conceived as independent until it stand on its own foot and only when it depends on itself, can it be conceived as standing on it own foot. One who
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depends on the mercy of others is nothing but take him as an appurtenant existence. However, if one not only support my life but also creates my life, then he'd be my life resource. By then, I'll be totally dependent on his mercy. In other words, were my life not out of my own creation, there must be a resource apart from me (The Complete Anthology., 1986. P. 129).
The above quotation is a discussion on the actual relation between self and others existing in social life. It echoes with the central theme appeared in Marx's early poems and touches upon the nature of his study on mankind in terms of its social relations. What has been proved here is that some of the philosophical clues in young Marx's thought, now have been brought up as a formal philosophical proposition along with Marx's theoretical attention.
Generally speaking, the poetry of young Marx reflects the spontaneous perception toward life and nature, which were perfected in his later works. To be concise, the early poetry can never be an equivalent to his later philosophical thesis, either in the depth of theoretical recognition or on the nature of philosophical beliefs. However, as Marx himself has put it, "lyrics undoubtedly became my primary subject of writings at that time. At least they are the most agreeable and pleasing subject matter." (The Complete Anthology., 1982. P. 9). In a dynamic perspective of judgement, I believe that Marx's philosophy ^ has grown from an individualized small world to a socialized greater world ever since his youth. Centuries later, when it became a role-model of a world philosophy resulting from ^ the gradual evolvement of an ethnic philosophy, it is no doubt that the starting point as well as the origin of Marx's philosophical thinking are deeply rooted in his early poems, because what we can perceive from these poems are not only his philosophical style and logic, but also his feelings towards the society and the era. °
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(3) The value of Marx's poetic philosophy ^
Judging from the subject matter, central theme and connotative ethos, the poems of Karl Marx are more than literary pieces. Due to the philosophical content carried by these g literatures, it may well be regarded as a type of versified philosophy dealing with the ac- ^ tual life and realistic world of the author. In general, the values of Marx's poems are at O least can be seen in the following. O
a. value of life solicitude ^
The criterion of poetic excellence lies not in the verbal form, rhythm or beats of lines but in the concern the poem extends to the internal world and external ones which are the cardinal connections between the gist of poetry and all the realities relating to mankind and society. What's more, good poetry should always care about the most valuable elements existing in the human life. Hegel once defined art in the way that most of the sensible forms and sounds exhibited in the art pieces were not for the existence of what they were felt to be, but for the catering of a higher level of spiritual purport because they were capable of responding to the inner voice of human demand (Hegel, 1920. P. 53). Co-incidentally, Dilthey believed that poetry was capable of manifesting incidents in which it meaning could be proved, no matter it was epic or lyric. Dilthey's supposition is based on the fact that any incidents could be meaningful so long as they explain something concerning the nature of life. He therefore pointed out that poetry was the organ to understand life (Dilthey, 2001. P. 245). These assertions fit quite well with Marx's poem. In fact, while exposing his psychological intuitions to the world, Marx paid much attention to many important issues of mankind, such as love, life, death, cosmos, society, etc. Thereby, the poems by Marx became the window to the outside world and the tool to feel for life and society around him.
Clearly exhibited in some of the poems is Marx's indulgence to individual emotions, especially his experience in love. But in general, Marx talked about the life and future either of his own or of the mankind. And he talked about all these from the bottom of his heart and inspiration of his life. What he finally realized is the principles of universe and
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the significance of salvation which lead to a deeper understanding of eternal life. When coming to this point, Wessell made a similar explicit statement as follows. Here I quote as follows, "the language of poet is not for duplicating the nature, nor is it for narration of sheer personal emotions. On the contrary, it saves the soul of the mankind from the control of profane life. In this process, objects are turned to be the song of ethos, or ethos itself. Therefore, they are holy and humane." (Wessell, 2008. P. 7). He also appealed that whenever we study the poems of Karl Marx, we should not forget the universal feeling he had when he wrote the lines because he was trying to explain the core value of life through discussing life and death. Thus speaking, the romantic poems he wrote are far more than being a biographical mark, they dramatize the existence of universe and the meaning of existence itself (Wessell, 2008. P. 9). All in all, I believe that the common feeling and ultimate concern of life solicitude are utterly explained through his imagination and perception. Marx showed his capability to care for spiritual existence of human being in his poems, which echo with the immortal theme of Marxist philosophy. b. value of critical reasoning
Heidergger claims that the nature of poetry is to create truth (Selections of Heidergger, 1996. P. 285). In Marx's poetry, the truth is that all the subject matters were taken from A real life, which exemplifies the transition of human philosophy from romanticism to realm ism. We can read between the lines and learn of the truth on Marxist philosophical world 0 outlooks, that is, the origin of revolutionary criticism. It's a pity that Marx's criticism was
0 grounded on the subjective intuition which can only be defined as idealistic criticism.
1 In the early poems, Marx laughed at the manners of "ordinary people" when they talked S about arts. Through a keen observation, Marx disclosed the disordered "fake consciousness" and vulgar expectations in the manners when philosophers and man of letters dis-
<< cuss literature. Prawer reminded repeatedly of the criticism Marx had when he put judgement on writers and philosophers ranging from Hegel to Pustkuchen. He mentioned that o Marx ironically criticized them where he believed they were wrong (Prawer, 1980. P. 18).
< In fact, the gist of realistic poetry lies in its criticism to subjective romanticism. Marx's criticism to both the physical world and the spiritual world helps the growth of his brave-ness in philosophical criticism he later employed in many of his works. For example, in
< one of the epigrams, Marx laughed at the mess in Hegel's language and thinking, claiming ^ that the professor's language has been messed up by nothing. His irony goes like "a dip 4 of thought may be named cognition, a flash of mind may be termed as thinking." At the
same time, Marx also criticized the classic idealistic philosophy so as to express his own ideas. He wrote as in the following, "Kant and Fichte are flying in the sky, probing to the unknown in darkness. I, nevertheless have no aim for that, hoping to lay on the ground for all." (The Complete Anthology., 1995a. P. 736). What Marx criticized here is the abstract and empty logic of Kant and his advocates for their absurd deduction from axiom to result. He hoped to pay more attention to logics of social reality with a free mind. Apparently, Marx's holdfast to critical reasoning is not biased in putting judgement on philosophical forefathers. His criticism was out of a seemingly reasonable attitude when he came to the theoretical notion systems of those renowned philosophers. For example, young Marx once harbored loathsome sentiments towards Hegel's philosophy, his criticism then is based on the ground of truth. He agreed with the dialectical logic which Hegel proposed and inherited from him even when disagreed with his notion of the world. In fact, in the poems of criticism upon Hegel, Marx has never made a complete denial to Hegel's work. What is worth mentioning is that Marx's critical comments were not only for other, but for himself as well. His criticism to his early poetry and its style was quite noticeable. He put a satirical comment on his adolescent romantic sentiments, asserting that "a realm of real poetry has made all his poems vanish at once." (The Complete Anthology., 1982. P. 14). What is still worth mentioning is that Marx has reached to ancient tradition for rhetorical allusions, but he has never given up being reasonable in judging the history. Far behind his
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criticism, there existed his liberal tolerance and reasoning to interpret and understand the world, either spiritual or natural.
c. value of aesthetic consciousness
As Tocqueville has put it, poetry is a probe to ideal. "The purpose of poetry is to beautify the reality and to provide the most beautiful image for human spirit." (De Tocqueville, 2006. Pp. 593-594). Coincidentally, the year when Tocqueville made such assertion on poetry was exactly the year when Marx wrote down most of his romantic lines. Unfortunately, what Tocqueville asserted and also exhibited in Marx's poem, the beautiful lines depicting the psychological and physical nature has received not many attentions ever since then. But deep in the lines of Marx's poem, there exist recognitions of beauty. In most of the verses, no matter what form they take, aesthetic connotations are prevailingly conceivable. In my opinion, Marx has persistent ideal to create a beautiful world. There are at least six types of beautiful scenes either psychologically or physically appeared in Marx's poems. To name as defined in the poems, they are the beauty of universe, of youth, of love, of humanity, of ideal and of struggling. In fact, all these types of beauties have been deeply buried in the contextual meaning, and the verbal expression may be just a carrier of sense to that effect. Besides the innate characteristic of poetic beauty, ^ what presented in the poems of Marx proves nothing but his consciousness to realize the natural beauty. Marx glorifies the spirit of fighting against evil, the bravery of challeng- ^ ing darkness, the pride to defeat banality in most of his narrative poems. His admiration 5 of love and singing for loyalty in lyrics tell the world of his understanding of beauty. £ Through out the poems by Marx, the word "beauty" has appeared in the lines for an esti- o mated frequency of over 300 times, and the beautiful sceneries in his description were also ° over 100. What we learn from this estimation is that Marx has indeed put much thought, intentionally or unintentionally, to the natural beauty which echoes with his subjective ^ interpretation of the world.
(3) The Political economic connotation and its relation to Marx's poetic philosophy ^
After dealing with the philosophical significance of Marx's poetry, now let's turn to the O last but not least important point of its political economic connotations. Modern scien- O tific analysis usually separate academic disciplinary one from another and offers concrete ^ analysis based on positivism. Therefore, it is not easy to perceive the deepest connotations and true-to-fact essence of Karl Marx's poetry. We have to admit that a large of amount of poems by young Marx reveal the fantasy and dreams of his own love life. In fact, most of the poems by Karl Marx, which seem to be out of his young warmth and adolescent effort to cry for love, yet imply the social relations undergoing in real German society transiting from feudalism to capitalism, revealing the interpersonal and interclass clash and class crises of bourgeoisies society, also dealing with the conflicts in the author's inner world also the outside realities of the worldly life he lived.
Other than the criticism of the corrupted lifestyle and world outlooks of the feudal ruling class and aristocracy, the focus of most Marx's poems is the actual life of different walks of life, such as those of the sailors, singers, physicians, rich and poor, man and woman, fairy and goddess, beggar and giver. To ponder a bit, we can not help to wondering the background and causes to the tragedy of the common people, and the extravagance of the privileged. You may argue that in his poems, Karl Marx never said that it is the actual progress of productive force and drastic change of productive relations that decides the at-present social status and class division, therefore the presence of their life pursuits, their ideals, and their worries. So to speak, though there is only a glimmer of thought to deal with the social production, and to deal with the political economic subject matter never happened in his young ambition. However, in the realism and narrative poems, especially the ironies and poems devoted to his father, Marx questioned the interpersonal relations and wondered the causes of human nature and the reason underlying human behavior.
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Luckily enough, Karl Marx gave us the preliminary answer that the reason of class division and value difference among those figures mentioned in the poems, is due to the underlined economic relations designed by the material production of the actual world.
Let us take a very short poem entitled The Employment Contract as an example. In this poem, a one sentence dialogue between hostess and maid started with the question of the hostess, demanding an open attitude at any possibilities to the maid concerning her employment. The dialogue goes like the following,
Hostess: tell me, frankly, what else do you want?
Maid: We know all is okay, except one key issue
In order not to turn the cold shoulder to my family
I ask, for at least one heart-to-heart treat and talk in every month of my employment
The dialogue is short, yet the conflict between the employer and employee is big, the contradiction between the aristocratic ruling and the poor employed class is fierce. In this vein, most of the wonders, questions and critics in Karl Marx's poems, seeming carry a more serious political and economic theme than the apparent floating of words.
R IV. Conclusion
A Though filled with a realm of dreamy feelings and romantic fervor, together with the
m adolescent enthusiasm and critical rebellion, the poems by Karl Marx bear a strong urge for 0 a sense of personal virtue, a firm willpower to rescue humanity from its agony, a struggle
0 for something bigger than personal gains in nature. And with its traditional pre-occupa-
1 tion with love, death, nature, and transcendence, these poems seemed coherent to the crit-S ical methods seeking to discover the essence of life and the world. As to the transition of
his central theme from romanticism to realism hidden in these literary works, it is in fact
< the reflection of specific social conflicts and historical conjuncture. William Blanchard once put it as "there was in him constant friction, an incompatibility with his surround-
0 ings, coupled with driving ambition. He expressed it very well in one of his early poems."
< (Blanchard, 1984. Pp. 365-374).
(1) As mentioned earlier, Marx's poetry should not be taken as sheer literary debut of his career because the diversified subject matters in these poems are indeed philosophi-
< cally realistic even though they are colored with romantic imaginations. As a matter of ^ fact, What Marx cared in most of his poems is not a private life but a public life, viewed 4 from the sublimation of central themes which can be proved by the transcendence from
minor object to greater concern. In general, he cared much more about a soul in common instead of a person in life. As Galotti has put it, the argument of Karl Marx has always been invariable from the very beginning to the very end. The gist of Marx's philosophy, economics and politics is that everyone has to be taken as a single person, that is to say, he has to be his own creator." (Galotti, 1976. P. 203).
(2) For the early poems, it is probable that Marx talked a lot about love. But along with the recognition of dilemma and true meaning of love, Marx shook off the chain of emotional bondage and turned to social concerns of mankind, especially a lead to the political economic matters of the human society. In the transition of his poetic style, we can not deny of Marx's imitation of romanticism at the beginning as well as his prone for realism in the end. However, his rigor criticism and grave irony towards romanticism symbolizes nothing but his progress towards real social problems, which lead to his final devotion to political economy and social philosophy.
(3) An analysis of Marx's methodology in his poetic writing may reveal his contribution to the development of German philosophy as well as philosophy of mankind, feudal political economy to capitalist political economy. In combing romantic feelings with realistic concerns, Marx has put his artistic writing into a description of social life, with social reality brought close and served as the ultimate foundation to poetic thinking, his critical thinking of human society. Therefore, the most impressive characteristic of Marx's poems
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is that they are the combination of sentiments and sensibilities, with emotion and reasoning as the basic element of his fundamental logic to political economy and social-political philosophy.
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