I'm always thinking of Russia
 I can't keep her out of my head.
 I don't give a damn for Uncle Sham.
 I'm a left wing radical Red.

(c. 1932)

I first read this amusing little ditty over a decade ago, quoted (without attribution) in a newspaper opinion piece. I’ve been searching for it on and off ever since, and finally found a reference to it via google (I love the internet!). As an unexpected bonus, I found it embedded in an excellent review (see links) of Harold Bloom’s “The Best Poems of the English Language”, where the reviewer, Cary Nelson, has this to say:

And, finally, like many steeped in high literary traditions, I have some favorite pieces of doggerel whose capacity to burlesque literary ambition and bring it down to earth is a necessary cultural and personal antidote. My all-time favorite remains H. H. Lewis’s “Thinking of Russia”.

I agree with Nelson - this is indeed a brilliant piece of verse. It has that indefinable quality called “catchiness”, which is sadly missing from most classroom discussions of literary theory, but which is nonetheless a very real measure of a poem’s merits (witness the fact that I remembered it fifteen years after seeing it quoted). Some combination of the easy metre, the deliciously irreverent tone and the wonderfully rhythmic phrase “left wing radical red” make this a poem far more timeless than its overtly political content would suggest. It might never make the pages of Bloom’s august tome, but I’m more than happy to run it here.

— Martin

Links

The Bloom review:
http://www.vqronline.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/8880