Anna Akhmatova, "Requiem": analysis of the work

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The life of this Russian poetess is inextricably linked with the fate of her country. From her poems, it is easy to see how the noose of the totalitarian regime was tightened and horror was escalated more and more. It was during these terrible years that the poem was created, where the whole of Anna Akhmatova was opened - "Requiem". The analysis of this work must begin with when it was written. From 1935 to 1940. It took six whole years to finish the poem, and every year, month and day were filled with sorrow and suffering.

The poem consists of diverse chapters, and each of them carries its own idea. There is also an epigraph that precedes Akhmatova's Requiem. An analysis of these few lines reveals why Anna abandoned the idea of emigrating from Russia. The words “I was with my people, where my people, unfortunately, were” in a genius way sparingly outline the whole tragedy of that era. Interestingly, the epigraphwas written twenty-one years after the poem, in 1961, after the death of the “father of nations.”

The chapter "Instead of a preface" also dates from 1957. The poetess considered that for the new generation, who did not see the horrors of the "Yezhovshchina" and the terror of the times of Beria, the story would remain incomprehensible. Anna's son, Lev Gumilyov, was arrested three times during these years. But Akhmatova does not talk about her personal grief. The "Requiem", the analysis of which must be carried out in order to reveal the deep layers of the poetics of those years, tells of a grief "to which a hundred million people scream."

Akhmatova draws a portrait of the entire Soviet Union in strong, measured lines, like the rumble of a death knell: countless mothers, wives, sisters and brides, standing in lines at the prison windows to give their loved ones simple food and warm clothes.

The syllable and meter change throughout the entire lyrical cycle: now it is a three-foot anapaest, now a vers libre, now a four-foot trochee. It is not surprising, because Akhmatova created "Requiem". An analysis of this poem allows us to draw a direct parallel with the piece of music by Mozart, who wrote a memorial service for an unknown customer in black.

Just like the "Requiem" of a brilliant composer, the poem had a customer. The chapter "Dedication" is written in prose. The reader will learn that this customer is a “woman with blue lips,” who stood in the same line with Akhmatova at the window in the Leningrad Crosses. "Dedication" and "Introduction" once again emphasize the scope of the repressions that have gripped the country: "Where are the involuntarygirlfriends … rabid years? Ten subsequent chapters, which have the titles "Sentence", "To Death" and "Crucifixion", once again emphasize that Akhmatova wanted to create "Requiem". The analysis of the funeral service echoes the Passion of Christ and the torment of a mother - any mother.

The "Epilogue" that ends the work is very meaningful. There, the poetess once again recalls the countless women who went through all the circles of hell with her, and gives a kind of lyrical testament: “And if someday in this country they plan to erect a monument to me … [let them put it in front of the Crosses prison], where I stood for three hundred hours and where the bolt was not opened for me. An analysis of Akhmatova’s poems, whose works were not written on paper for a long time (because they could have been imprisoned for them), but only learned by heart, which were published in full only during perestroika, tells us that until the poet’s testament is fulfilled, and the monument she will not rise at the "Crosses", the shadow of totalitarianism will hang over the country.