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Selected Poems

by Anna Akhmatova, D.M. Thomas (Translator)

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 1,553 ratings · 77 reviews

Brings together all D.M. Thomas' acclaimed translations of Akhmatova's poems. It includes "Requiem", her poem of the Stalinist Terror and "Poem Without a Hero".

Paperback, 160 pages

Published October 6th 1992 by Penguin Classics (first published June 1st 1969)

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May 15, 2012 Ben Winch rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian, poetry, mainland-european

It's unfortunate the way that Goodreads treats various collections by the same poet as one, especially when they each have a different translator. To clarify, I'm reviewing the Stanley Kunitz translation, Poems of Akhmatova, and I recommend this as the best introduction. True, not all the major poems are represented, but to my ear it is the most musical, and if I understand Akhmatova correctly this musicality would have been supremely important to her. Of the other versions, Judith Hemschemeyer'...more It's unfortunate the way that Goodreads treats various collections by the same poet as one, especially when they each have a different translator. To clarify, I'm reviewing the Stanley Kunitz translation, Poems of Akhmatova, and I recommend this as the best introduction. True, not all the major poems are represented, but to my ear it is the most musical, and if I understand Akhmatova correctly this musicality would have been supremely important to her. Of the other versions, Judith Hemschemeyer's The Complete Poems is clearly essential for the devoted fan - it's comprehensive, informative, eminently scholarly - but unfortunately to my ear it's pretty clinical. D.M. Thomas? Not bad, but not substantially different from Kunitz and certainly not superior. As to Lyn Coffin's Poems, I never liked the selection, and after dipping into it once or twice spent all my time on the Kunitz and the Hemschemeyer.

It's difficult to know what to say about an icon like Akhmatova. At this remove, knowing no Russian and only the bare bones of her life, I feel as if whatever I say will sound dilettantish, especially given that I have none of these books in front of me as I write this. Nevertheless it troubles me that a cheap Vintage edition of her poems can sit on the shelf in the bookstore where I work for 3 months before finding a buyer, when I can see no reason why she shouldn't be as widely-read as Emily Dickinson, as Orwell, as The Master and Margarita.

Akhmatova was a born poet. With or without the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, her destiny was to sing. Witness her early poems, already tragic in their impetus when speaking of nothing more than failing love affairs, already heart-stoppingly beautiful. And if you hear her, in your heart, in this early incarnation, take the ride. This ordinary young woman - not starving, not oppressed, not unlike you or me - will now (slowly in the Hemschemeyer book, quickly in the Kunitz) be transformed before your eyes into martyr, prophet and saviour, a figure who was treated with near-religious reverence in her homeland, and shaped to fit this role by history. What would have become of her without Stalinism? Probably she would still be a key figure in Russian literature, but thanks (or no thanks) to history she is more than this; she bears testament, yet always in that pitch-perfect singer's voice which sounds, even in English, like nothing else on Earth.

Akhmatova's is the most all-consuming body of poetry I know. 2 or 3 times in my life I have sat or lain with it for days, inhabiting it, suffering through it, exalting, weeping, attempting to reconcile it. This is not a task to be taken lightly - reading her will change you. You will wish like anything that you could hear her in the Russian; you will strain to listen as if to a distant sound from beyond. But if you read the Kunitz version, sometimes you will sing - you will sing along with her. And you will yearn - to get closer, to hear better, and sadly, to turn back time, to spare her, to spare them all.

I would guess that - were such a thing measurable - the achievement of Anna Akhmatova is unsurpassed by any artist in any field in the 20th Century. To the Russians who were her contemporaries she must have been analagous to a saint. It is one thing to bear witness; it is another to never lose sight of beauty.

No foreign sky protected me,
no stranger's wing shielded my face.
I stand as witness to the common lot,
survivor of that time, that place.

('Requiem', translated Stanley Kunitz with Max Heyward)

I love this poet.(less)

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Feb 25, 2010 Holly Lindquist rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, currently-own

I know of few poets who can pack as much emotional weight and power into such spare and economical poems. The translations are excellent and the original Russian versions are included, as they should be. This slim volume may not weigh much, but the content is as heavy as the Potemkin. Akhmatova was a warrior who gave a voice to those who would not have been heard otherwise and she is a perfect example of what poetry can be at it's greatest.

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Sep 04, 2010 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, russian

In his obit essay on Nadezhda Mandelstam (in "Less Than One" collection), Joseph Brodsky writes, "It's an abominable fallacy that suffering makes for greater art. Suffering blinds, deafens, ruins, often kills. Osip Mandelsam was a great poet before the revolution. So was Anna Ahkmatova, so was Marina Tsvetaeva. They would have become what they became even if none of the historical events the befell Russia in the century had taken place: because they were gifted. Basically, talent doesn't need hi...more In his obit essay on Nadezhda Mandelstam (in "Less Than One" collection), Joseph Brodsky writes, "It's an abominable fallacy that suffering makes for greater art. Suffering blinds, deafens, ruins, often kills. Osip Mandelsam was a great poet before the revolution. So was Anna Ahkmatova, so was Marina Tsvetaeva. They would have become what they became even if none of the historical events the befell Russia in the century had taken place: because they were gifted. Basically, talent doesn't need history."

On the other hand, in the intro to this tranlsation of AA, Stanley Kunitz comments that Osip Mandelstam made a remark to the effect that "great poetry is often a response to total disaster."

The connection between genius and environment is an intriguing one, though I don't think they are mutually exclusive. Attempts to separate the two remind me of what Flannery O'Connor once said about identifying the theme of a short story: "People talk about the theme of story as if the theme were like the string that a sack of chicken feed is tied with. They think that if you can pick out the theme, the way you pick the right thread in the chicken-feed sack, you can rip the story open and feed the chickens."

Likewise, though teasing out the thread of history in a poem might enchance one's appreciation for it, I'm not sure it's essential, or even wise, for experiencing a writer's genius. (I had a student once who argued that Frost's poem "After Apple Picking" was about negative effects of too many immigrants filling America in the 20s, a bizarre interpretation that raised the disturbing specter of Frost as the Pat Buchanan of poets.) One can see evidence of both views woven together in AA's poetry.

On the one hand, you have a poem like "Voronezh," written in 1936 and dedicated to Osip M: "But in the room of the banished poet / Fear and the Muse stand watch by turn, / and the night is coming on, / which has no hope of dawn." Kunitz argues that in this poem, AA "prophesied the horrors of 1937-38, when Stalin gave his demented Commissar of Internal Affairs seemingly unlimited license to kill and imprison."

And on the other hand, you have a poem like "Lot's Wife" (my personal favorite) written in 1922-24, that ends with, "Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem / too insignificant for our concern? / Yet in my heart I never will deny her, / who suffered death because she chose to turn." I suppose one could read some form of political defiance in those words, but they give me goosebumps because they seem to suggest some deeply personal response to grief. Whether the grief if AA's own or that of a friend or relative who knows. Regardless, it's a great poem.

Having heard so much about AA over the years, I worried that she couldn't possibly match all the profuse acclaim, that in reading her for the first time, I would feel a bit deflated, disappointed. Ha, fat chance! She is even better than I had hoped. I won't draw any grand conclusions about the effects of history on her work except to say that it both stares down and transcends the times.
(less)

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Feb 06, 2009 Wealhtheow rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't get these poems easily--I can't just pick this book up and understand. Still, there are some that strike immediately:

"The three things he loved most in life
Were white peacocks, music at mass,
And tattered maps of America.
He didn't like kids who cried and he
Didn't like raspberry jam with tea
Or womanish hysteria.
...And I was, like it or not, his wife."

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Feb 11, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

One often wonders, when one hears everyone and their brothers spouting superlatives about a poet from a historically repressive country, whether the superlatives are based on the poet's actual work, or whether they're in some way based on the poet's admirable-- but irrelevant-- ability to perform within a culture that is repressive to the poet's art. In some cases, the superlatives are justified, for example Vladimir Holan's stunning book-length poem _A Night with Hamlet_, written while Holan wa...more One often wonders, when one hears everyone and their brothers spouting superlatives about a poet from a historically repressive country, whether the superlatives are based on the poet's actual work, or whether they're in some way based on the poet's admirable-- but irrelevant-- ability to perform within a culture that is repressive to the poet's art. In some cases, the superlatives are justified, for example Vladimir Holan's stunning book-length poem _A Night with Hamlet_, written while Holan was officially a non-person in Hungary in the sixties.

Akhmatova has been called "the greatest Russian woman poet ever, and perhaps the greatest woman poet ever." I can't help but think those lauding on these kinds of laurels are looking more at her life than her work. There are certainly flashes of great brilliance here, but to put Akhmativa's work up against that of, say, Elizabeth Bishop, Deborah Allbery, or even the underrated Dorianne Laux would quickly reveal many of its flaws.

This is not to say that Akhmatova's poetry is completely without merit, and one must be forced to consider the viability of the work of any translator who would consider "He, was it, through the packed hall/Sent you (or was it a dream?)" to be the best way to translate anything, much less poetry. And thus, perhaps, the original is far more eloquent than what we receive here. That taken into account, there is still the problem to contend with that much of Akhmatova's work is, for obvious reasons, overtly political, and makes no attempt to convey its message artistically; worse yet, a good deal of that work is imagist, impressionist. The end result is something that's thick, sludgy, and impossible to read.

However, every once in a while a good line will shine through, and occasionally we find ourselves staring at a poem that seems to exist well outside the boundaries of this particular collection:

* * *

Voronezh

And the town is frozen solid, leaded with ice.

Trees, walls, snow, seem to be under glass. Cautiously I tread on crystals. The painted sleighs can't seem to get a grip. And over the statue of Peter-in-Voronezh Are crows, and poplars, and a pale-green dome Washed-out and muddy in the sun-motes. The mighty slopes of the field of Kulikovo Tremble still with the slaughter of barbarians. And all at once the poplars, like lifted chalices, Enmesh more boisterously overhead Like thousands of wedding-guests feasting And drinking toasts to our happiness. And in the room of the banished poet Fear and the Muse take turns at the watch, And the night comes When there will be no sunrise.

* * *

Unfortunately, there's too little of this and too much of the rest. Giving the benefit of the doubt where the translation is concerned, I can still only manage ** 1/2. (less)

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Dec 28, 2012 K.m. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, russian

Speaking as one of a generation of people living under the weight of the fear, violence, loss and want of two world wars and part of a generation of artists and thinkers oppressed, imprisoned, arrested, exiled, censored and executed by their government, Akhmatova's words are weighty. She grieves and remembers and prays in verse. Writing circumspectly (sometimes), to dodge censorship, Akhmatova's personal tragedies speak more broadly. The translator's commentary was helpful, and thankfully separa...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not very good at writing about poetry, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised to read a poet write so elegantly about life under Stalin without bashing the reader over the head with obvious messages and overt sloganeering. She's very good at writing about other things, too. I was occasionally distanced by not having a thorough knowledge of political situations and artistic works she used for shorthand references, and the repetition of imagery sometimes made me glaze over, but I'm gla...more

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Nov 06, 2007 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tears dropped into the past from the crying future.

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Nov 16, 2011 Brittany Nelson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Powerful, heartbreaking, and full of truth. Akhmatova certainly did not have an easy life--including living in Russia during the Stalinist terror. She also lost her husband to death and her son was sent to prison. One can only imagine what that would be like. She is able to convey the depths of romance and despair in a simplistic way, which conceals the depth of her meaning. Interested to read more of her in the near future.

"Already madness has covered/half my soul with its wing,/and gives me s...more

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Jul 16, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Really good, but also pretty short. I don't know what the back story was with this collection, but it seems like it could of been longer. Oh, they have the original Russian versions, but I don't read Russian. It might as well be white space. What's here however is terrific. The translators (Kunitz & Hayword)did some fine work bringing these poems to life. I compared a few of the poems (Willow, Cleopatra) with the versions in the D.M Thomas/Penguin effort, and it's clear that these are the ve...more

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Mar 23, 2009 mr. fantasy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-poetry

Anna Akhmatova is a 20th Century poet whose body of work revolves around themes of time and memory, humanity, and the human soul, of which she bears hers clearly in her poems.

I took forever to read all the poems/the book (which is really a quick read), but finally coming to the end with a reading of the last 2 and most celebrated poems, my initial reactions and thoughts are confirmed in my rating on this particular 'selected' works book. Some notes (also, some comments were left during my readin...more Anna Akhmatova is a 20th Century poet whose body of work revolves around themes of time and memory, humanity, and the human soul, of which she bears hers clearly in her poems.

I took forever to read all the poems/the book (which is really a quick read), but finally coming to the end with a reading of the last 2 and most celebrated poems, my initial reactions and thoughts are confirmed in my rating on this particular 'selected' works book. Some notes (also, some comments were left during my reading of the book, if you are able to see..):

- The book as 'selected poems' is designed to be read as a chronological survey, in order, leading up to what is apparently considered to be her masterpieces.

- Translation is good, Introduction is decent

* While the selections did provide a brief snapshot and did link adequately to show Akhmatova's thematic development, I was constantly left wanting to read more from certain collections.

* While there is a positive in allowing the reader to see what Akhmatova is generally about quickly through this book design, there are, in my opinion, some strong negatives/flaws:
Her collection overviews (selections) were too brief, showcasing some stellar poems, but ultimately placing what I felt was too much emphasis on her later 2 most celebrated poems- Requiem, and Poem without a Hero (her most complex and cryptic poem). The poet has certainly more to offer than just these two poems. Personally, I know I would greatly identify and find resonance with 1 or 2 of her earlier collections. Also, the book is designed as an introduction for people to Akhmatova, it's not ideal to focus on her 'big' 2 poems, which without reading and having a background in her earlier, very accessible and easily-read and understood poems, would probably be either too difficult for most new poetry readers or might fail in carrying through the full resonance and soul of the poet. The one good thing this book design does allow is to show the poet's development and preceding work, which would only prove this point regarding the latter poems.

It's certainly not a bad book, because obviously the contents are good: good poet, good translation, good info, good poems, but I'd hate to see Anna Akhmatova being judged and read on only the last 2 poems, which no doubt some people will skip or glaze through the beginning collections, which show small glimpses of the poet's greatness.

Therefore, I have some reservations about this book version and presentation (certainly not the poet, who is worth an involved reading and study).

Akhmatova is a poet of great soul and beauty, hauntingly so for those open to read more than just her trendily celebrated pieces. It's too bad that publishers do not present poets' collections in more complete and singular packages (like chapbooks/pamphlets, box sets...).

The book is a good quick read, it made me want to seek out her early collections. Luckily, there is an exhaustive 'Complete Works' out there that I will have to pick up to find and collect all the small gems.

Not a bad book, but not a mind-blower due to the presentation, design, and somewhat limited selections. My rating will have to be 3/3.5.
(less)

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Aug 16, 2008 Jenna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: international-poetry

I'm moving this book to the "read" shelf because I've decided not to make any more efforts to finish it. I've read the whole book except the lengthy "Poem Without a Hero" at the end, and this translation is just so choppy and stuttering and opaque that I can't force myself to finish it. Some of the short poems at the beginning of the collection, slight and untitled love lyrics, seem to have translated very well: they have buoyancy and freshness and flow, and the sudden leaps of thought are exhil...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Becky Isett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Akhmatova is a Russian poet who remained isolated for most of her literary career. All of these poems reflect that a little, I think. They're intense, almost brutally so. Most are depressing and cold, but in a really passionate way. religious and historical references are the usual themes. The translation is really good, although I don't really have much to compare it to... but I think her message gets across in all her poems. Definitely not for everyone, but really breathtaking if you can get t...more

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Oct 26, 2007 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, poetry

I got this book after seeing a wonderful painting of Anna Akhmatova by the Russian artist Natan Altman (http://www.auburn.edu/academic/libera....)

I'm glad I did it. I enjoyed the selected poems, if "enjoy" is the right word to use about someone who often had an understandably gloomy and heavily burdened view of life. I reread several of the poems after reading the biography of Akhmatova in the beginning of the book, because I could better understand the context in which they were written.

Some mi...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry, russian, translation, in, russia, moscow, st, petersburg, language, revolution, world, war, 2, yezhov, terror, yezhovshchina

Anna Akhmatova lived and wrote at the eye of the storm that overtook Russia in the first half of the twentieth century. She suffered and endured through revolution and war, terror and famine. Her acquaintances, lovers, husband and son were shot, or arrested and dragged off into the Gulag. But her work transcends her life; in clear, classical, measured Russian, she draws art from tragedy. Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward's translations equal the strength of Akhmatova's poems.

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Feb 19, 2011 Snehal Bhagat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Includes Thomas' excellent translations of the early love poems, and of the later poetry of persecution and lament. The influence on the generation of poets that followed is readily apparent; the question posed early on in the twentieth:

Why is our century worse than any other?
Is it that in the stupor of fear and grief
It has plunged its fingers in the blackest ulcer,
Yet cannot bring relief?

Westward the sun is dropping,
And the roofs of town are shining in its light.
Already death is chalking doors...more

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May 20, 2013 Ariadna73 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

So beautiful and sad! The poem I liked the most was that about the women that are waiting in line in front of a prison, wanting to see their husbands, sons, brothers, who are incarcerated for various reasons related to war. The beauty of the images and the sadness of the feelings brought tears to my eyes.

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Feb 03, 2011 Carolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

As with all poetry, some touch you, some leave you saying, "What?". Poetry is so personal, like religion almost. I liked "By the Seashore" and "The Guest", but I didn't enjoy all of them quite so much. However, reading poetry is wonderful on a dark night and I did enjoy this slim book.

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Jul 10, 2010 Julia Boechat Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, constantly-re-reading, tingle-of-the-spine, poetry, russian-literature, 1970s, favorites

Apertei as mãos sob o xale escuro...
“Por que estás tão pálida?”
- Porque hoje lhe dei a beber amargura
até que ele foi embora daqui embriagado.

Posso acaso esquecê-lo? Saiu daqui cambaleando,
Sua boca torcendo dolorosamente....
Desci correndo, sem nem encostar no corrimão,
corri atrás dele até o portão.

Angustiada gritei: “Tudo não passou
de uma brincadeira. Se fores embora, morro”.
Sorriu docemente e, com um muxoxo terrível,
Disse-me: “Não fique no vento”.

Anno Domini MCMXXI
(publicado em 1922)
Não estás m...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Phil rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Akhmatova's poems fit comfortably in the tradition of high modernism, featuring themes of isolation, loss, fantasy, and political despair. FOr me her most interesting poems were those that responded, or seemed to respond, to the Russian Revolution and the Stalinist period.

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Feb 22, 2011 Venus rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: poem

But listen, I am warning you
I'm living for the very last time.
Not as a swallow, nor a maple,
Not as a reed, nor as a star,
Not as spring water,
Nor as the toll of bells…
Will I return to trouble men
Nor will I vex their dreams again
With my insatiable moans.

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Jan 21, 2013 Kasandra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps it's the translation, but this collection read very unevenly to me -- I liked half of it, and really disliked half of it, give or take. On the whole, I enjoyed the later works far better than the earlier ones, and liked the longer poems better than the shorter ones. I wish I could read these in Russian to truly get the flavor, as I suspect reading them in English leads one to miss a lot. My favorite here was "The First Long-Range Artillery Shell in Leningrad", and a close second was "Mus...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Rich rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

Many of the shorter poems are good in translation, but the sequence/Triptych "poem without a hero" is worth the cover price alone -- a rare work that makes me wish I could read the original in it's original language.

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Feb 09, 2011 Lucy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russia, verse-and-stage, the-mile

REQUIEM
No, not under the vault of alien skies,
And not under the shelter of alien wings--
I was with my people then,
There, where my people, unfortunately, were.

INSTEAD OF A PREFACE
In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror, I spent seventeen months in the prison lines of Leningrad. Once, someone "recognized" me. Then a woman with bluish lips standing behind me, who, of course, had never heard me called by name before, woke up from the stupor to which everyone had succumbed and whispered in my ear...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Kirsty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, personal-challenges-2013, purchased-2012, read-2013, best-of-2013

A marvellous collection of poems on the whole, which I read a little bit at a time. A few of the poems were quite similar in their subject matter and writing style, particularly as the book reached its end, it was lovely to have such an overview of the author's work, though. I found the essence of the poems beautiful, but the translation was sometimes rigid in this collection, and the lovely poetic elements sometimes felt as though they has been stripped out in consequence.

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Apr 25, 2011 Fiona rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Looking back over my reading experience, I feel like I've had my guts ripped out. But in a really good way.

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Apr 30, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

I have no idea where this stands as far as translations go. But it worked for me.

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Apr 11, 2013 Samvel Andreasyan rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favorite Russian poet I like to read in English!

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Nov 01, 2007 Natasha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

If you want to be a poet- or if you simply want to read some amazing poems- this is the right book. This one doesn't have all her stuff, but it's not too big and can fit in a purse or backpack without any trouble.

Oh, and by the way, Anna Akhmatova was a bold and resolute woman in her time. She stayed in Russia during the purges even as her fellow country men left for better places like France. I love France and the whole ex-pat thing, but it seems to be the place where cop outs go when they can...more

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Nov 15, 2008 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I reread this delightful book the other night when I was irritated at my husband. The translations are fantastic, and poetic in and of themselves (I have read so many terrible translations of her work). I also really enjoy the biographical introduction and his explanation of his philosophy of translating. Notes are good too. But nothing beats the poetry. From Reading Hamlet to Poem Without a Hero and everything in between. Akhmatova is, in my mind, the perfect poet. Requiem still makes me cry......more

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About Anna Akhmatova

Also known as: Анна Ахматова, Anna Ahmatova

Pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, a Russian poet credited with a large influence on Russian poetry.

Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of crea...more Also known as: Анна Ахматова, Anna Ahmatova

Pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, a Russian poet credited with a large influence on Russian poetry.

Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to universalized, ingeniously structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935-40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her work addresses a variety of themes including time and memory, the fate of creative women, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. She has been widely translated into many languages and is one of the best-known Russian poets of 20th century.

In 1910, she married the poet, Nikolay Gumilyov, who very soon left her for lion hunting in Africa, the battlefields of World War I, and the society of Parisian grisettes. Her husband did not take her poems seriously, and was shocked when Alexander Blok declared to him that he preferred her poems to his. Their son, Lev, born in 1912, was to become a famous Neo-Eurasianist historian.

Nikolay Gumilyov was executed in 1921 for activities considered anti-Soviet; Akhmatova then married a prominent Assyriologist Vladimir Shilejko, and then an art scholar, Nikolay Punin, who died in the Stalinist Gulag camps.
After that, she spurned several proposals from the married poet, Boris Pasternak.

After 1922, Akhmatova was condemned as a bourgeois element, and from 1925 to 1940, her poetry was banned from publication. She earned her living by translating Leopardi and publishing essays, including some brilliant essays on Pushkin, in scholarly periodicals. All of her friends either emigrated or were repressed.

Her son spent his youth in Stalinist gulags, and she even resorted to publishing several poems in praise of Stalin to secure his release. Their relations remained strained, however.
Akhmatova died at the age of 76 in St. Peterburg. She was interred at Komarovo Cemetery.

There is a museum devoted to Akhmatova at the apartment where she lived with Nikolai Punin at the garden wing of the Fountain House (more properly known as the Sheremetev Palace) on the Fontanka Embankment, where Akhmatova lived from the mid 1920s until 1952.(less)

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Quotes from Akhmatova: Selected Poems

“It is good here: rustle and snow-crunch...
Ski tracks on the splendid finery
of the snow; a memory
that long ages ago
we passed here together.” — 5 people liked it

“... he is rewarded with a form of eternal childhood,
with the bounty and vigilance of the stars,
the whole world was his inheritance
and he shared it with everyone.” — 4 people liked it

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title link	preview: Selected Poems
avg rating	preview: Selected Poems Goodreads rating: 4.31 (1553 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171094.Selected_Poems?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172385460l/171094.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171094.Selected_Poems?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova[/url]

Selected Poems

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