- “Already half of Europe, already at least half of Eastern Europe, on the way to Chaos, drives drunk in sacred infatuation along the edge of the precipice, sings drunkenly, as though hymn singing, as Dmitri Karamazov sang. The offended bourgeoisie laughs at the songs; the saint and the seer hear them with tears.”
Europe is personified as a drunk lunatic singing on the edge of a cliff. It is on the verge of falling, with no sign of recovering from the tangle man has created. This stanza describes Europe as though we’re looking at it from a distance. Perhaps God wants us to view the destruction we’ve caused to His creation thro
London depicted in an apocalyptic scene
ugh His eyes.
The women are crying out to their men lost in the war, no certainty of return.
“Murmur of maternal lamentation”
The unrecognizable troops rampaged the land, encountering and losing number in trenches.
“Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth”
The cities over the mountains, once were magnificent paradises, are falling in violet air. “Violet” was mentioned many times throughout the poem. It signifies the atmosphere of twilight, the end of day, of something that was once great. Dusk has engulfed them in violet light, where everything seem almost unreal. Nobody could grasp what has happened has happened right before their eyes. Nobody wants to believe that Europe is no longer vivacious and prosperous.