A Study Guide for Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535831987

Book preview

1

Requiem

Anna Akhmatova

1963

Introduction

Anna Akhmatova's most revered poem, Requiem, found in The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, 1992, gives voice to the suffering and punishment of Russian citizens during the years of the Stalin regime. Joseph Stalin, who was the dictator of Communist Russia in all but name, ordered the imprisonment or execution of over one million Russians who were perceived as enemies of the state. The worst of the persecutions took place throughout the 1930s. Indeed, Requiem was written over a wide period of time, likely from the 1930s through the 1940s. Little is known about the details of the poem's initial release, but it was first published abroad in Munich, Germany, in 1963. Because the poem portrays the pain that thousands of Russians experienced, the government banned the poem's publication in Russia until 1989.

The poem is told from the perspective of a mother whose son is imprisoned for political resistance against the new Communist regime. The narrator, without resorting to overt sentimentality, shares the emotional trauma of having to wait for extended periods of time to learn of what has happened to her son. In the process of expressing her sorrow and torment, the narrator gives a voice to every Russian who was in a similar situation.

In the beginning of this poem, a stranger asks the narrator if she is able to describe the atrocities that they are experiencing. The narrator answers: Yes, I can. This poem is Akhmatova's proof of that statement. Of all the poems that Akhmatova wrote, Requiem is the one that is most often quoted from and used to demonstrate the poet's skill. The writing evokes emotion through the simplest of phrases. Lines such as Husband in the grave, son in prison demonstrate Akhmatova's minimal use of words to express the greatest of personal tragedies. At the end of the poem, the narrator speaks of creating monuments in order to remember the dead. This poem is itself a monument for Akhmatova and for all who have lost loved ones to political persecution. That is why Requiem is not only read as one of Akhmatova's greatest poems, but as one of the greatest poems by any Russian poet, and even as one of the outstanding literary achievements to encompass the tragedies of Communism.

Author Biography

Akhmatova, whose birth name is Anna Gorenko, was born on June 23, 1889, in Bol'shoi Aontain, the third of six children. She grew up in Tsarskoe Selo, outside