Requiem (Anna Akhmatova)

Requiem is an elegy by Anna Akhmatova about suffering of people under the

Anna Akhmatova - Author of
Great Purge. It was written over three decades, between 1935 and 1961.[1] She
Requiem
carried it with her, redrafting, as she worked and lived in towns and cities
across the Soviet Union. The set of poems was conspicuously absent from her
collected works, given its explicit condemnation of the purges. The work in
Russian finally appeared in book form in Munich in 1963, the whole work not
published within the USSR until 1987.[2][3] It would become the best known
poetry work about Soviet Great Terror.

Contents
Overview
Structure
General themes
Critical reception
External links
References

Overview
The set of poems is introduced by one prose paragraph that briefly states how she waited for months outside Leningrad Prison,
along with many other women, for just a glimpse of fathers, brothers or sons who had been taken away by the secret police in
Soviet Russia. Following the introductory paragraph, the core set of poems in Requiem consists of 10 short numbered poems,
beginning with the first reflecting on the arrest of Akhmatova's third husband Nikolay Punin and other close confidants.[4] The
next nine core poems make references to the grief and agony she faced when her son, Lev Gumilev was arrested by the KGB in
1938.[5] She writes, "one hundred million voices shout" through her "tortured mouth".

Seventeen months I've pleaded

for you to come home.
Flung myself at the hangman’s feet.
My terror, oh my son.
And I can’t understand.
Now all’s eternal confusion.
Who’s beast, and who’s man?
How long till execution?

(from Requiem. Trans. A.S. Kline, 2005)

While the first set of poems relate to her personal life, the last set of poems are left to reflect on the voices of others who suffered
losses during this time of terror. With each successive poem, the central figure experiences a new stage of suffering. Mute grief,
growing disbelief, rationalization, raw mourning, and steely resolve are just a few that remain constant throughout the entire
cycle.[6] Writing sometimes in first person and sometimes in third person, Ahkmatova universalizes her personal pain and makes
a point to connect with others who experienced the same tragedy as herself. Since the topics chosen were controversial at the
time, Requiem was written in 1940 but was not published. Akhmatova believed publishing the work during that period would be
too dangerous and felt it was better to keep it reserved in her head, only revealing it to some of her closest friends. Requiem was
first published without Ahkmatova's consent in 1963 in Munich.[7] The complete text was not published in the Soviet Union until
1987.[8]

Structure
Requiem is separated into three sections which set the structure of the entire cycle.[7]

1. The introduction also known as the prose paragraph is located at the beginning of the cycle. It details the background story of
how Anna Akhmatova came to the decision of writing this poem and also explains the environment they were a part of during
that period in history. Below is the paragraph that introduces the cycle:

"During the frightening period of the Yezhov terror, I spent seventeen months waiting in prison queues in Leningrad. One day,
somehow, someone "picked me out". On that occasion there was a woman standing behind me, her lips blue with cold, who, of
course, had never in her life heard my name. Jolted out of the torpor characteristic of all of us, she said into my ear (everyone
whispered there) "Could one ever describe this?" And I answered, "I can." It was then that something like a smile slid across what
had previously been just a face."[9]

2. The second section of the cycle is the first ten poems after the introduction, which are references to her personal grief. Her
husband Nikolay Punin had been arrested for his second time and placed into jail where he died.[10] In the first poem of this set
titled "Dedication", she references her unsettling feelings toward his arrest and his death, and also reaches out to her close friends
who had also been arrested. While the first paragraph is a dedication to people who were very important to her, the other nine of
the second section directly relate to the arrest of her only son Lev Gumilev.[4] Akhmatova expresses her inner sadness, pain and
anger about the situation she and many other women were put in. For 17 months, she waited outside the prison in Leningrad just
waiting for a glimpse or notification of what was going to happen to her son. This section concludes with Akhmatova describing
how no one can take away the important things that go unnoticed such as a touch, a look, visits, etc.[7]

3. The third and last section of this set starts with the title "Crucifixion". This set of poems is from the perspective of the other
women who also stood outside Leningrad prison waiting for just a glimpse or notification from their fathers, sons, or husbands
who had been arrested also.[4] Through intricate details, she describes the grieving, pain, weakness, and fear she observed while
waiting along with them during this time of terror. Overwhelmed with sadness, the ending closes with:

And let the prison dove coo in the distance

While ships sail quietly along the river.

General themes
Requiem is often said to have no clearly definable plot but has many themes which carry throughout the entire poem.[7] One of
the most important themes that also stands as part of the title is the theme of "A poem without a hero".[9][7] Throughout the entire
cycle and the many poems within, there is no hero that comes to the rescue. It is important for the readers to know that because it
is almost always a piece that people are looking for. Akhmatova wants her readers to recognize that they had to overcome this
together, not by being saved by a figment of the imagination. Also, grief, disbelief, rationalization, mourning, and resolve are just
a few themes that remain constant throughout the entire cycle. These themes all connect with one another because they are all
stages of suffering. Whether it be the suffering of Akhmatova herself, or the suffering of the many other women who had to face
the same tragedy they all are an important part in creating the purpose for the poem. Another visible theme in the cycle is the
reference to biblical people.[5] Mary Magdalene, Mary Mother of Christ, John a disciple are people who Akhmatova
references.[9] It is said that she incorporates this theme into the complex cycle to reinforce the idea that although there has been a
large amount of suffering amongst all of them, there is nothing left to fear. It also allows her to transcend her personal
circumstances in a mythical, and supernatural way.

The last theme that seems very prominent at the end of the cycle is the idea of keeping this tragedy as a memorial. By
remembering what happened and not allowing yourself to ever forget is a part of the stage of suffering that allows you to move on
in life. This again ties back into the stages of suffering, so it is all interconnected.

Critical reception
Akhmatova feared that it would be too dangerous for herself and those around her if she released the poem during the 1940s
when it was written. It wasn't until after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 that she finally decided that it was the right time to
have it published. The whole cycle of Requiem was finally published in the USSR by 1987.[2] After finally being published,
Akhmatova's critics described Requiem as a blend of graceful language and complex classical Russian forms of poetry.[5]

External links
English translation in The Hopkins Review (http://hopkinsreview.jhu.edu/archive/requiem/)

References
1. Who's Who in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. 1999.
2. Martin, R. Eden (April 2007). "Collecting Anna Akhmatova" (http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/2007/apr07.pdf)
(PDF). Caxtonian. Caxton Club. XV (4): 12–16.
3. Harrington, Alexandra (2006). The poetry of Anna Akhmatova: living in different mirrors. Anthem Press. p. 20.
ISBN 978-1-84331-222-2.
4. "Anna Akhmatova" (http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Akhmatova.htm). UMV. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
5. "Political Cultures in Poetry" (http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/profiles/blogs/721766:BlogPost:1423). Poems
for Human Rights. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
6. Gorenko, Anna. "Requiem" (http://www.enotes.com/requiem-criticism/requiem-anna-akhmatova). Enotes.
Retrieved 2011-09-13.
7. Liukkonen, Petri. "Anna Akhmatova" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110906013703/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aakh
ma.htm). Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aakhma.htm) on 6 September 2011. Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
8. Puchner, Martin (2012). The Norton Anthology of World Literature (Third ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton &
Company. p. 568.
9. "Requiem" (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/requiem/). Poem Hunter. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
10. "An Elegy for Russia: Anna Akhmatova's Requiem". JSTOR 309548 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/309548).
Missing or empty |url= (help)

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