Anna Akhmatova Poems

Akhmatova, whose real surname was Gorenko, is one of the two greatest women poets in the history of Russian poetry. The daughter of a merchant marine engineer, she spent much of her childhood in Tsarskoye Selo, the village outside St. Petersburg where the Tsar's summer palace was located. The regal nature of her work is perhaps in part attributable to this royal environment. Her first books of poetry, Vecher (Evening) (1912) and Chyotki (Rosary) (1913; reissued eleven times), brought her critical acclaim. From 1910 to 1918 she was married to Nikolay Gumilev.

Akhmatova's poetry, with a few exceptions, is distinguished from that of Russia's other preeminent woman poet, Marina Tsvetayeva, by its polished form, classical transparency, and thematic intimacy. She wrote comparatively few poems of a "civic" character and, unlike almost any other poet, little or nothing that could be called mediocre. Her poetry has stood well the test of time, as evidenced by such works as "Mne golos byl..." (I heard a voice...), which repudiates immigration; the patriotic "Muzhestvo" (Courage), which appeared during World War II; the remarkable "Rekviem" (Requiem); and others.

It is revealing that, despite the personal tragedy of her son's arrest and persecution during Stalin's worst purges in 1937-1938, she did not grow bitter but bore her pain with dignity and endurance. In 1946 Akhmatova, along with Mikhail Zoshchenko, fell prey to harsh and unjust criticism in a party resolution "About the Journals Zvezda and Leningrad" in a repressive persecution of the arts led by Andrey Zhdanov. She was not rehabilitated fully until the 1960s. In 1964 she was awarded the Italian Taormina Prize and in 1965 she received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. At the time of her death Akhmatova was highly acclaimed both at home and abroad. Her funeral was a farewell to an entire literary epoch (more than half a century) of which she herself was the queen with a very heavy crown.