The poetess worked on her poem “Requiem” for eight long years. Only her work was forbidden to be published during Stalin’s times; it was taught by heart by close and dear poets, because even storing manuscripts was dangerous, and Anna Akhmatova burned them. For the first time, the poem “Requiem” was published by a Munich publishing house in 1963, only fourteen long years later the poem was published in the poetess’s native country.
Anna Akhmatova experiences the tragedy of the era as her own. She's rooting for the future home country. She suffers from various contradictions, but her position is unchanged - she is connected with her homeland with all her soul, devoted to it with all her heart. The poetess suffered with her people and lived with their concerns. A terrible grief touched her with a wing personal life. In the year 1935, her son and husband were sentenced to prison as members of an “anti-Soviet terrorist group.” Of course, this was an absurd accusation. All this drama of her life resulted in something beautiful, albeit sad - the writing of brilliant challenge poems.
The poem "Requiem" is written in separate poems. All these poems are different in their theme, sound, and poetic structure. The structure of the essay gives rise to the effect of emotional tension, an excited monologue of the lyrical heroine, who is experiencing drama in her personal and public life.
In the epilogue of the poem, Akhmatova appeals to the theme of Pushkin’s “Monument”. Let's try to find the similarities and differences between A. Pushkin's "Monument" and Akhmatova's "Epilogue". For Pushkin, the monument is not only the embodiment of the poetic heritage, but also a symbol of spiritual freedom and bright feelings. Using the symbol of the monument, Anna tried to prove that purity human soul and the revival of society is possible only under the conditions of the restoration of freedoms, kindness, high morality and biblical commandments.
With all her difficult life, Anna tried to prove that the tragedy of a mother and a woman is integral part national tragedy. Despite all her personal troubles, Akhmatova was with her people, suffered with them, shared all the sorrows and joys. The main feature of poetry is the words that belong to this brilliant poetess: “to create exquisite beauty from the “garbage” of real reality, that is, to rise from the earth to the stars, and then return to the earth again with a shower of stars in poems.”
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova is a great Russian poetess, a talented woman who faced difficult trials. She had to go through a lot. The terrible years that changed the entire country could not but affect its fate. The poem "Requiem" was evidence of everything that Akhmatova had to face.
The period of creation of this poem took six years - from 1935 to 1940. These years were full of difficult and tragic events that affected the lives of many people, dividing the normal, happy life and terrible reality.
The poem "Requiem" consists of several parts, each of which carries a specific idea.
The epigraph to the poem was the lines in which Akhmatova says that her whole life was closely connected with the fate of her native country, even in the most terrible years, all the hardships of that time affected her life. She refused to emigrate and remained in Russia:
No, and not under an alien sky,
And not under the protection of alien wings -
I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were.
The lines of the epigraph were written later than the poem itself. They are dated 1961.
The part “Instead of a Preface” talks about what preceded the writing of the poem. The wave of arrests of innocent people, repressions and arbitrariness of the authorities that swept across the country became a tragedy for the entire country. Endless prison queues, in which relatives and friends of prisoners stood, became a symbol of that time. This also affected Akhmatova when her son was arrested.
“Dedication” is a description of the experiences of people who spend a lot of time standing in prison lines. Akhmatova speaks of their “deadly melancholy,” hopelessness and enormous grief. The metaphors she uses convey the people's grief and suffering:
Mountains bend before this grief,
The “Introduction” part conveys the pain and grief that one feels when thinking about tragic destinies innocent people.
Death stars stood above us
And innocent Rus' writhed
Under bloody boots
And under the black tires there is marusa.
In the same part, the poetess paints the image of a deeply unhappy, sick, lonely woman. This is not even a woman, but a ghost, grief-stricken to the extreme:
This woman is sick
This woman is alone...
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth poems are personal in nature. Akhmatova talks about her own memories and feelings. There are precise temporal details (“I’ve been screaming for seventeen months”), affectionate addresses to my son (“the white nights looked at you, son, in prison”), and a characterization of the most lyrical heroine of the poem (“the cheerful sinner of Tsarskoye Selo”).
The seventh part of the poem - “The Verdict” - carries the idea of human perseverance. In order to survive, the mother must become stone, learn not to feel pain:
We must completely kill our memory,
It is necessary for the soul to turn to stone,
We must learn to live again.
But it’s difficult to bear all this, so the eighth part is called “To Death.” The heroine is awaiting her death. She asks her to speed up her arrival, because life has lost all meaning for the heroine:
You'll still come. - Why not now?
I'm waiting for you - it's very difficult for me.
I turned off the light and opened the door
To you, so simple and wonderful.
The tenth part - “The Crucifixion” - shows the tragedy of thousands of mothers whose children innocently bear a heavy cross:
Magdalene fought and cried,
The beloved student turned to stone.
And where the mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
The epilogue of the poem consists of two parts. In the first part, Akhmatova again addresses those who stood in the prison line with her. She asks God for help, but not for herself alone, but for all the grief-stricken people “under the red, blind wall.”
The second part develops general poetic themes of the purpose of the poet and poetry. Here Akhmatova raises the topic of her possible Monument, which should stand at that terrible prison wall where “the old woman howled like a wounded beast.” Akhmatova poetess poem requiem
In her life, Anna Akhmatova knew glory and oblivion, love and betrayal, but she always endured all suffering and difficulties, because she was strong man. In our time, Anna Akhmatova’s mental fortitude and unyielding will serve as an example and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for us.
The poem “Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova is based on the personal tragedy of the poetess. An analysis of the work shows that it was written under the influence of what she experienced during the period when Akhmatova, standing in prison lines, tried to find out about the fate of her son Lev Gumilyov. And he was arrested three times by the authorities during the terrible years of repression.
The poem was written in different time, since 1935. For a long time this work was kept in A. Akhmatova’s memory; she read it only to friends. And in 1950, the poetess decided to write it down, but it was published only in 1988.
In terms of genre, “Requiem” was conceived as a lyrical cycle, and later was called a poem.
The composition of the work is complex. Consists of the following parts: “Epigraph”, “Instead of a Preface”, “Dedication”, “Introduction”, ten chapters. The individual chapters are titled: “The Sentence” (VII), “To Death” (VIII), “The Crucifixion” (X) and “Epilogue.”
The poem speaks on behalf of lyrical hero. This is the poetess’s “double”, the author’s method of expressing thoughts and feelings.
The main idea of the work is an expression of the scale of the people's grief. As an epigraph, A. Akhmatova takes a quote from her own poem “It’s not in vain that we were in trouble together”. The words of the epigraph express the nationality of the tragedy, the involvement of each person in it. This theme continues further in the poem, but its scale reaches enormous proportions.
To create a tragic effect, Anna Akhmatova uses almost all poetic meters, different rhythms, as well as different quantities stop in lines. This one is hers personal reception helps to acutely sense the events of the poem.
The author uses various paths that help to understand people's experiences. These are epithets: Rus' "innocent", yearning "deadly", capital "wild", sweat "mortal", suffering "petrified", curls "silver". Lots of metaphors: "faces fall", “the weeks fly by”, “Mountains bend before this grief”,“Locomotive whistles sang a song of separation”. There are also antitheses: "Who is the beast, who is the man", “And a heart of stone fell on my still living chest”. There are comparisons: “And the old woman howled like a wounded animal”.
There are also symbols in the poem: the very image of Leningrad is an observer of grief, the image of Jesus and Magdalene is identification with the suffering of all mothers.
A comprehensive study of the poem “Requiem” by Akhmatova, analysis of the composition, artistic means, comprehension of the title, helps to experience the deep ideas of the poetic work.
Despite the small volume, each line is significant in content and strength of feeling. The reader is unable to indifferently perceive the events reflected in the poem.
The plot is based on the personal drama of Anna Akhmatova. Her son was subjected to brutal arrest procedures three times. In 1949 he was sentenced to death. Subsequently, the death penalty was replaced by exile.
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966)
Lev Gumilyov was first taken into custody in 1935. The most significant parts of the Requiem date back to this year. For five years, the poetess worked on a series of poems about Russian women going through difficult times, suffering for their imprisoned men.
In the early 60s, Anna Akhmatova united disparate works into a single whole, giving the poem the name “Requiem”.
In Catholicism, a requiem is a religious rite performed for the dead, and its mourning musical accompaniment. In manuscripts, the title of the poem is written in Latin letters, which may indicate a connection with musical works.
So “Requiem” by Wolfgang Mozart, whose work Akhmatova was interested in in the 30s and 40s, consists of 12 parts. Anna Andreevna's poem has 10 chapters, Dedication and Epilogue.
“Requiem” can be attributed to a new movement in literature, Acmeism, which opposes symbolism and proclaims clarity and precision of words, directness of style and clarity of images.
Literary innovators had the goal of ennobling man through art. Akhmatova, like all Acmeists, strived for poetic changes in ordinary and sometimes unattractive phenomena of life.
The work “Requiem” fully corresponds to the innovative movement of Acmeism with its classical rigor of style and the desire to convey atrocities and outrages in poetic language.
The genre of “Requiem” is poem. But many literary scholars cannot unambiguously determine the genre of the work due to its similarity to a poetic cycle. The unity of the idea, the lyrical basis that connects the individual fragments helps to classify “Requiem” as a poem.
A logical and consistently structured plot unfolds before the reader, briefly describing an entire era.
The narration is told in the first person, acting at the same time as a poet and a lyrical hero.
Composition of the work The composition of the "Requiem" is distinguished by a ring structure, consisting of a prologue formed by the first two chapters, an epilogue of two last chapters
and the main part. Each part has a special emotional meaning and carries its own sensory load.
The poem is replete with lyrical experiences, and in the prologue and epilogue there is a tendency towards generalizations and epic.
The preface consists of prose text, reminiscent of a newspaper clipping. This technique helps the reader to plunge into the atmosphere of the era being described.
The biographical theme of the poem - the imprisonment of a son and the moral torment of a suffering mother - is heard in the first chapters of the work. The prologue is followed by four chapters that convey the mourning voices of mothers.
In the first poem, written in the form of a monologue, a woman from the people grieves about her son being led to execution. This eternal heroine of Russian history conveys in her poetic lament the full depth of soul-tearing grief:
The plot center of the poem is the fifth and sixth passages, dedicated to the son languishing in prison. Each poem is compositionally complete, integral a work of art, united by common sorrowful motives, a feeling of death and the pain of loss.
In the epilogue, thoughts emerge about death, the end of life, the result of which should be a monument to the people's suffering.
The main lyrical heroine of the poem is both the author of “Requiem”, and a mother worried about the fate of her son, and ordinary woman from the people. Each of these images is unique and, smoothly flowing, combines into one face, the prototype of which is Anna Akhmatova herself.
The lyrical heroine is a woman with powerful, inexhaustible internal energy, who, in an attempt to save her only child, “threw herself at the feet of the executioner.”
The heroine’s personal experiences are replaced by detachment in her assessment of behavior, driving her mother into despair: “This woman is sick, this woman is alone.”
The author looks at everything that happens around him from the outside. It is difficult to imagine how, having in the past been “a mocker and the favorite of all friends,” the heroine turned into a shadow calling for death. A meeting with her son causes a storm of emotions in the mother’s soul, but despair is replaced by hope and the desire to fight to the end.
The image of the son is revealed in the work not so fully and multifacetedly, but comparing it with Christ emphasizes the innocence and holiness of the hero. He appears as a humble martyr, trying to console and support his mother.
Other main characters of the poem are collective female images, worried about the fate of close men. They languish in uncertainty, endure severe cold and scorching heat in anticipation of short visits. The author personifies them with the Mother of God, who meekly endures adversity.
The central theme of the work is the theme of memory, a return to the memories of the past, the preservation of what has been experienced, felt and seen. And this is not only the memory of one person, but also the national memory of people united by common grief:
The cry of mothers for their sons, continuing the theme of memory, is heard in verse, starting with the Introduction. Then the motive of death arises, generated by the expectation of execution, the inevitability of an inevitable end. The reader is presented with the image of a mother, personified by the Mother of God, who survived the terrible death of her son.
The theme of the suffering Motherland, integrally connected with the destinies of its people, is revealed by Akhmatova in “Requiem”:
After all, the Motherland is the same mother who worries about her sons, who were unfairly accused and fell victims of cruel repression.
And through all the sorrows, the theme of love shines, conquering evil and life’s adversities. A woman's selfless love can overcome any obstacles in the fight against the system.
Topics covered in the poem “Requiem”:
The poems that make up the work “Requiem” were written between 1935 and 1940. The poem was published in Russia two decades after the death of Anna Andreevna, in 1988.
The story opens with the prosaic lines “Instead of a Preface,” which explain the whole idea.
The reader finds himself in a Leningrad prison line in the 30s, where everyone is in a daze and speaks in a “whisper.”
And to the question of the woman with “blue lips”:
- Can you describe this?
The poet says:
The lines of the poetic epigraph written in the preface explain the meaning of the “Requiem” written vernacular and addressed to the people. The poet speaks of his involvement in the country’s disasters:
The theme of the Preface continues in the poetic Dedication. The scale of what is happening is intensifying, nature and the surrounding historical reality emphasize the desperate state of people and isolation from a serene life:
It is agonizing to wait for a court decision on which will depend further fate native person.
But not only people experience sad feelings, but also their homeland, Russia, which responds to suffering:
Here a biblical image appears, the messenger of the Apocalypse:
In the introductory part of the Requiem, the most important motives and main images are outlined, which are developed in subsequent chapters of the poem. The lyrical heroine appears, watching her son being taken away “at dawn.” Loneliness comes instantly:
The biographical details of Akhmatova’s life, time frame, boundless tenderness and love for her son are described:
In the seventh chapter "The Verdict" in simple words inhuman experiences, attempts to understand and come to terms with the terrible reality are described.
But it is impossible to accept and endure what happened, so the eighth chapter is called “To Death.” The saddened heroine sees no other way out but to die. She strives for oblivion and calls for death:
The ninth chapter tells about the last meeting in prison and the approaching madness:
The next part, “The Crucifixion,” serves as the semantic and emotional center of the poem. Here a parallel is drawn with the suffering of the Mother of God, who lost her son Jesus. Akhmatova identifies herself and all unfortunate mothers with Maria:
In the epilogue, which consists of two parts and carries a strong semantic load, the author addresses people. In the first shorter poetic fragment, Anna Andreevna directs her words to everyone who has experienced similar feelings. She prays for everyone who stood with her in prison lines:
In the second part we're talking about about poetry, the role of poets and their purpose. The poetess speaks of herself as a spokesman for the voices of a hundred million people:
And she sees a monument to herself at the prison walls, where so much has been experienced, felt and mourned:
“Requiem” is a special poetic work of Anna Akhmatova, going beyond the context of everyday perception of life and history. The hero of the poem is the people, and the author is only a part of this mass of people. The poet wrote the poetic lines in simple, understandable language. They are imbued with love for their homeland and its inhabitants.
Anna Andreevna has been gone for a long time, but her work is still relevant and interesting to the reader. Her poems need to be felt; they have a powerful effect on people, forcing them to empathize with the characters.
And the stone word fell on my still living chest. It’s okay, because I was ready, I’ll deal with it somehow. I have a lot to do today: I need to completely kill my memory, I need my soul to turn to stone, I need to learn to live again. Otherwise... The hot rustle of summer is like a holiday outside my window. I have long anticipated this Bright day and an empty house. 1939, Fountain House
Almost the entire “Requiem” was written in 1935-1940, the section “Instead of the Preface” and the epigraph are marked 1957 and 1961. For a long time, the work existed only in the memory of Akhmatova and her friends, only in the 1950s. she decided to write it down, and the first publication took place in 1988, 22 years after the poet’s death.
The very word “requiem” (in notebooks Akhmatova - Latin Requiem) means “funeral mass” - Catholic worship for the dead, as well as mourning musical composition. Latin name poems, as well as the fact that in the 1930s - 1940s. Akhmatova was seriously engaged in studying the life and work of Mozart, especially his “Requiem”, which suggests a connection between Akhmatova’s work and musical form requiem. By the way, Mozart’s “Requiem” has 12 parts, Akhmatova’s poem has the same number (10 chapters + Dedication and Epilogue).
The Epigraph and Instead of the Preface are unique semantic and musical keys of the work. The epigraph (lines from the 1961 poem “So it was not in vain that we suffered together ...”) introduces the lyrical theme:
I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were.
Instead of the Preface (1957), picking up the theme of “my people,” it takes us to “then” - the prison line of Leningrad in the 30s. Akhmatov's Requiem, like Mozart's, was written “to order”; but in the role of “customer” - “a hundred million people”. The lyrical and epic in the poem are fused together: talking about her grief (the arrests of her son - L.N. Gumilyov, husband - N.N. Punin), Akhmatova speaks on behalf of millions of “nameless”; behind her authorial “I” stands the “we” of all those whose only creativity was life itself.
The dedication continues the theme of the prosaic Preface. But the scale of the events described changes:
Mountains bend before this grief,
Doesn't leak great river,
But the prison gates are strong,
And behind them are convict holes...
The first four verses of the poem seem to outline the coordinates of time and space. There is no more time, it has stopped (“the great river does not flow”); “a fresh wind is blowing” and “the sunset is basking” - “for someone,” but no longer for us. The rhyme “mountains - holes” forms a spatial vertical: “involuntary friends” found themselves between heaven (“mountains”) and hell (“holes” where their relatives and friends are tortured), in an earthly hell.
The motif of the “wild capital” and “frenzied years” of the Dedication in the Introduction is embodied in an image of great poetic power and precision:
And dangled like an unnecessary pendant
Leningrad is near its prisons.
Here, in the Introduction, a biblical image from the Apocalypse appears, accompanying the heroine throughout her entire life. way of the cross: “the stars of death stood above us...”, “...and a huge star is threatened with imminent death”, “... the Polaris star is shining.”
The numerous variations of similar motifs characteristic of the Requiem are reminiscent of musical leitmotifs. The Dedication and Introduction outline the main motifs and images that will develop further in the poem.
In Akhmatova’s notebooks there are words that characterize the special music of this work: “... a funeral Requiem, the only accompaniment of which can only be Silence and the sharp distant sounds of a funeral bell.” But the Silence of the poem is filled with sounds: the hateful grinding of keys, the song of separation of locomotive whistles, the crying of children, a woman’s howl, the rumble of black marusi (“Marusi”, “raven”, “funnel” - this is what people called cars for transporting prisoners), the squelching of doors and the howl of an old woman... Through these “hellish” sounds are barely audible, but still audible - the voice of hope, the cooing of a dove, the splash of water, the ringing of censers, the hot rustle of summer, the words of the last consolations. From the underworld (“prison convict holes”) - “not a sound - and how many / Innocent lives end there...” Such an abundance of sounds only enhances the tragic Silence, which explodes only once - in the chapter Crucifixion:
The choir of angels praised the great hour,
And the skies melted in fire...
Crucifixion - semantic and emotional center works; For the Mother of Jesus, with whom the lyrical heroine Akhmatova identifies herself, as well as for her son, the “great hour” has come:
Magdalene fought and cried,
The beloved student turned to stone,
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
Magdalene and her beloved disciple seem to embody those stages of the way of the cross that have already been passed by the Mother: Magdalene is rebellious suffering, when the lyrical heroine “howled under the Kremlin towers” and “threw herself at the feet of the executioner,” John is the quiet numbness of a man trying to “kill memory ", mad with grief and calling for death.
The terrible ice star that accompanied the heroine disappears in Chapter X - “the heavens melted in fire.” The silence of the Mother, whom “no one dared to look at,” is resolved with a cry-requiem, but not only for her son, but also for all the “millions killed cheaply, / Who trampled the path in the void” (O.E. Mandelstam). This is her duty now.
The Epilogue that closes the poem “switches time” to the present, returning us to the melody and general meaning of the Preface and Dedication: the image of the prison queue “under the red blinding wall” appears again (in the 1st part).
The voice of the lyrical heroine grows stronger, the second part of the Epilogue sounds like a solemn chorale, accompanied by the blows of a funeral bell:
Once again the funeral hour approached.
I see, I hear, I feel you.
“Requiem” became a monument in words to Akhmatova’s contemporaries - both dead and alive. She mourned all of them with her “weeping lyre.” Akhmatova completes the personal, lyrical theme in an epic way. She gives consent to the celebration of erecting a monument to herself in this country only on one condition: that it will be a Monument to the Poet at the Prison Wall:
Then, even in the blessed death I am afraid
Forget the thunder of the black marus.
Forget how hateful the door squelched
And the old woman howled like a wounded animal.
“Requiem” can be called, without exaggeration, Akhmatova’s poetic feat, a high example of genuine civic poetry.
Critic B. Sarnov called Akhmatova’s human and poetic position “courageous stoicism.” Her fate is an example of a humble and grateful acceptance of life, with all its joys and sorrows. Akhmatova’s “Royal Word” harmoniously connected the here and the other:
And the voice of eternity calls
With an unearthly irresistibility,
And over the cherry blossoms
The radiance of the light month is pouring.
And it seems so easy
Whitening in the emerald thicket,
The road, I won’t tell you where...
There among the trunks it is even brighter,
And everything looks like an alley
At the Tsarskoye Selo pond.
