There was one poem in particular that struck me with the most visual depiction of what happened during the Russian Revolution. The poem, “In Russia: The Spilling of Wine,” was written by Lola Ridge, and published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse in July 1922. This poem, through the use of it’s subtle hints and imagery, shows the reader how terrible the Russian Revolution was for the soldiers.
Just by looking at the title of the poem I got a sense of the dreariness of the poem. Generally when one speaks about war they say that blood has been spilled, here the author refers to the spilling of wine. Knowing a little bit about Russian history, I can say that maybe the author was comparing wine, a royal drink, to the Romanoff leadership. Comparing the two in an esteemed way. In the first stanza the poem refers to the “wine of the Romanoffs” as “Jeweled wine.” (201)
In the first stanza of the poem the author gives the reader a sense that the soldiers are dead. By showing the reader what the soldiers can no longer do physically, the reader understands that the soldiers are dead and this poem is taking place after a war. Phrases such as, “the soldiers lie upon the snow,” “they will not babble any more secrets to loose-mouthed nights,” “they will not drink any more wine,” and “the soldiers lie very still,” show that a war is over, or the fighting is done. (201) Since this poem was published in 1922, well after the Russian Revolution was over, the reader understands that the Revolution was very bloody and had many deaths. A lot of blood was spilled. However, in the last two lines of the first stanza, the author says, “the ancient cronies,/forgather above them.” (201) This is to say that the soldiers that the author was speaking about are not dead, rather they are dying.
In the second stanza the author shows the reader through the use of visual images of blood that the soldiers are bleeding to death. Ridge describes how the dying soldiers’ blood spilled onto the clean white snow. “And blood in thin bright streams/Besprinkling the immaculate snow.” (202) All this blood lost by the soldiers, which Ridge spoke about in the first stanza, was “boring... into the cool snow.” (202) “Mingling in bright pools/That suck at the lights of Petrograd/As dying eyes/Suck in their last sunset.” (202) These poor souls were laying in a field covered in snow waiting to die and watching their last sunset. Through various words such as “pouring,” “spurting out,” “streams,” and “pools,” the reader can tell that there was a lot of blood spilled during the Russian Revolution.
