Selected PoemsAnna Akhmatova (1889-1966) is among the most moving and revered voices in Russian literature. A poet of passion and conscience, she was persecuted after the Revolution and under Stalin, but chose to remain in Russia and bear witness. Her works capture a rich emotional world - poems such as A Ride and By the Seashore reflect a complex attitude to love or explore the duality of her own nature, while others, such as Courage and In 1940, evoke the horrors of war. And in her two great poem cycles, Requiem and Poem without a Hero, she creates a heart-rending depiction of a mother waiting outside a prison for news of her son and a magical layering of the old, joyous St Petersburg upon a tormented Leningrad. |
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Common terms and phrases
Akhmatova Alexander Blok ancient ANNA AKHMATOVA Anno Domini become Bezhetsk blind Blok blue Boris Pasternak called candles century close cursed D. M. THOMAS dance dark dead death dream earth everything eyes face flame flowering flying Fontanka friends Garden Goodbye guest Gumilev hand happiness hear heart Hero Hope Abandoned husband kiss Kitezh Knyazev Komarovo Kuzmin Leningrad light lilac live look memory Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Kuzmin mirrors Muse musical Nadezhda Mandelstam Neva never Nikolai Nikolai Gumilev Nikolai Punin no-one Pasternak PENGUIN CLASSICS Petersburg poem poet poetry portrait published Pushkin quiet remember Requiem road roses Russian Seventh shade shadow shore silence sister sleep Slepnyovo smell smile snow someone song soul Soviet stars Sudeikina Summer Tashkent tears terrible There's Tsarevitch Tsarskoye Selo Tsvetaeva voice walls weep whisper White Flock white nights willow wind window words written