Volunteers of America, 1917
This chapter examines the odyssey of the Seven Arts, led by its editor-in-chief, James Oppenheim, from naïve nationalism to radical dissent that ultimately led to its demise. It emphasizes the important role played in this project by verse texts and by “poetry” as a metaphor for national identity, as well as the far-reaching cultural impact of the New Verse movement. The Seven Arts's life can be divided into two halves: an initial phase of utopian cultural nationalism between November 1916 and March 1917, followed by a steadily intensifying oppositional phase between April and October. Defying conventional views of the modernist little magazine as a fugitive publication, the Seven Arts became an ideal destination for formally experimental American poetry owing to its amateur status. This chapter considers the impact of World War I on the Seven Arts and cites its demise as evidence of the limits and weaknesses of American free-speech traditions and the end of the utopian moment of early American modernism.