The second poem of Alexander Blok’s The Twelve was intensely chilling in the way it illustrated Russia’s revolutionary War with Religion. The repetition of “down with the cross” was a line which seems rather basic in the English Language (which is why I wish I could absorb the original Russian) but conveys an brilliant image with some strong symbolic meaning. The poem actually ties the old Russia in with religion, or at the very least, it illustrates how the revolutionaries tied old Russia with religion. It tells the story of how the revolutionary’s nail mother Russia to the cross before chopping it down.
What seemed a bit less clear upon first reading this poem (as well as the other twelve) was the profound sense of irony which was being injected into the narratives. There relatively very little direct criticism of the revolution itself, outside of painting pictures of its extremities. The narration of the poem almost seems to mockingly accept the anti religious and generally destructive tenants of the revolution, and it does so seemingly with a sort of self-aware blindness. The language is at times downright feverish in its narration of revolutionary fervor. In a sense, without questioning the revolution, it transforms it into a sort of perverse religion in and of itself. Poetry is one of the few things capable of such a feat.
*****I did not finish the movie before midnight, so I will be adding a second section to this journal once I do.*****
Ethan, I think your comments on both religion and revolution are very important. The parallel between the advocacy for less religion, particularly in the second of Blok’s twelve poems, and the advocacy for real revolution, is a very important theme in “The Twelve” and is Avery noticeable aspect of the propaganda. Great analysis!
Yes, absolutely, and Ethan, you’ve given this a very sensitive reading and have done a great job of picking up on the poem’s complicated, ironic yet ambiguous attitude toward the Revolution and all that it stands for!! i just want to make clear that the title of “The Twelve” has multiple meanings (some of them also religious, as it evokes Jesus’s twelve apostles) and also that the poem is a unitary whole with 12 separate sections or “chapters” of a sort (i.e., these shouldn’t be seen as separate poems, but as parts of a whole, unified narrative told in verse). Also, to add to your discussion of the poem’s (anti-)religious thematics, we definitely have to consider the ambiguity of the very puzzling final image of Jesus marching ahead of the revolutionaries… I’m really sorry that we ran out of time and were not able to discuss this very important poem in class! But as you can see, it makes a really interesting pair with the Eisenstein film. I’m so glad that the two of you (Ethan and Jacob), at least, found the time to read it! It’s a really key work in early 20th-century Russian literature.