So they march with sovereign tread…
Behind them limps the hungry dog,
and wrapped in wild snow at their head
carrying a blood-red flag
soft-footed where the blizzard swirls,
invulnerable where bullets crossed –
crowned with a crown of
snowflake pearls,
a flowery diadem of frost,
ahead of them goes Jesus Christ.


The Twelve (1918); translation from Jon Stallworthy and Peter France (trans.) The Twelve, and Other Poems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970) p. 160.


So they march with sovereign tread… Behind them limps the hungry dog, and wrapped in wild snow at their head carrying a blood-red flag soft-footed...

So they march with sovereign tread… Behind them limps the hungry dog, and wrapped in wild snow at their head carrying a blood-red flag soft-footed...

So they march with sovereign tread… Behind them limps the hungry dog, and wrapped in wild snow at their head carrying a blood-red flag soft-footed...

So they march with sovereign tread… Behind them limps the hungry dog, and wrapped in wild snow at their head carrying a blood-red flag soft-footed...