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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION by VALERY YAKOVLEVICH BRYUSOV

First Line: SMASHING THE VICE-LIKE BLOCKADE
Last Line: AGAINST THE MORNING SKIES.
Subject(s): RUSSIAN REVOLUTION;

Smashing the vice-like blockade,
Tossing the splinters sky-high,
Over boundary, wall and stockade
Forward, red rider, fly!

Through insults, affronts and reproofs
Hostile murmur and hate
Echo, triumphant hooves,
Over a world prostrate.

Blow after blow you deal
To the decrepit age-old walls,
While, merciless, far and near
The tattoo of your horseshoes rolls.

Dauntless, forward you leapt,
And the dust, disturbed, rose high.
But now with time it has set
And opened the dawn-tinged sky.

Everyone -- purblind and prophet --
Turning eastward his eyes,
In Berlin, New York, and Paris,
Your fiery progress descries.

With joy or with oaths of hatred
The globe beholds in surprise
The red silhouette of the Kremlin
Against the morning skies.



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