Speculations on Meeting a Girl with a Mongolian Eye-Fold. [Race and Identity, ca. 1940]

“Behold Martha, descendant of the West and East, Mid-continent and Mongol”

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A curious 1940 WWII-era poem from “David to Martha” reflecting on racial heritage and cultural synthesis, envisioning unity between East and West. Through historical allusions to Attila and Aryan ideals, it explores themes of identity and integration: “Does the Teuton bend this rounded brow, / And dominate a daughter of the Serbian steppes? / The East will rise again, in this legacy left of old, And weld the Western people in an all-embracing fold.” David suggests that Martha, his muse, embodies this synthesis with her global, multifaceted identity: “Martha, on the Bohemian Plateau / Is presage of the perfect race—the One Race of Man.” Martha is silhouetted against a radiant sphere, resembling the Earth or sun, with rays emanating around her. This imagery perhaps evokes the possibility of humanity transcending the divisions exacerbated by World War II.

Price: $125.00