Anna Akhmatova (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Peter Washington (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

All Of Moscow Is Soaked With Verses
And, In Books, I Always Liked
Around My Neck Are Rosary Strands
As For Saying Goodbye, We Don't Know How
As I Die, I Long For Immortality
As If Through A Straw, You Drink My Soul
Beyond The Lake, The Moon's Stopped In Space
Boris Pasternak
The Breakup: 1
The Breakup: 2
Broad And Yellow Is The Evening Light
Cinque: 3
Cleopatra
Dante
A Doer Of Nothing, I Came Here-why Not?
Don't Threaten Me With A Terrible Fate
During Each Day-today, Tomorrow-
Earthly Fame's Like Smoke, I Guess-
Fear, Fingering Objects In The Dark
The First Long-range Artillery Shell In Leningrad
Fisherman
Housewarming: The Betrayal
Housewarming: The Guests
Housewarming: The Hostess
Housewarming: The Tryst
I Asked A Nearby Cuckoo To Say
I Called Deathdown On The Heads Of Those I Cherished
I Hear The Oriole's Voice, Clear And Distressed
I Learned A Simple And Wise Existence
I Live Like A Cuckoo In A Clock
I Pressed My Hands Together Under Cover
I See On The Customs House A Faded Flag
If The Lunar Horror Splashes Around
In 1940: 1
In 1940: 2 To Londoners
In 1940: 5
In Memory Of Mikhail Bulgakov
In The Woods
Inscription On A Portrait
It Seems That The Voice We Humans Own
It's Not With A Lover's Lyre, Not At All
The Last Rose
The Last Toast
Late At Night. Monday, The Twenty-third
Like A White Stone In The Depths Of A Well
Listening To Singing
The Loss Of True Feelings And Words Renders Us
Lot's Wife
Masquerade In The Park
Memories Of The Sun Fade As My Heart Grows Numb-
Midnight Verses: 1, Pre-spring Elegy
Midnight Verses: 2, The First Warning
Midnight Verses: 3, Through The Looking-glass
Midnight Verses: 4, Thirteen Lines
Midnight Verses: 5, The Call
Midnight Verses: 6, Night Visit
Midnight Verses: 7, And The Last One
Midnight Verses: Instead Of A Dedication
Midnight Verses: Instead Of An Afterword
The Muse
Music
My Voice Is Weak, My Will Doesn't Weaken Though
On The Hard Crests Of The Snowdrifts That Lead
One Travels Straight Ahead, The Other
Over The Water
Prayer
Pusscat, Watch Out, An Embroidered Owl
Quatrain Sequence (1)
Quatrain Sequence (2)
Quatrain Sequence (3)
Quatrain Sequence: My Name
Quatrain Sequence: To My Poems
Requiem
Requiem: 3
Requiem: 4
Requiem: 5
Requiem: Dedication
Requiem: Epilogue 1
Requiem: Epilogue 2
Requiem: Instead Of A Preface
Requiem: Introduction
A Ruddy Youth Wandered Forlornly Around
Seaside Sonnet
The Secrets Of The Craft: 3, Muse
The Secrets Of The Craft: 6, The Last Poem
The Secrets Of The Craft: 7, Epigram
The Secrets Of The Craft: 9, To Osip Mandelstam
The Smell Of Inanimate Things And Flowers
Song About Songs
The Song Of The Final Meeting
The Souls Of All My Loved Ones Are On High Stars
Suddenly It Was Quiet Everywhere
The Tale Of The Black Ring: 1
The Tale Of The Black Ring: 2
The Tale Of The Black Ring: 3
There's A Sacred Limit To Any Closeness
They Didn't Bring Me A Letter Today
This Craft Of Ours, Sacred And Bright
The Three Autumns
The Three Things He Loved Most In Life
To The Memory Of A Poet: 1
To The Memory Of A Poet: 2
To The Muse
Voronezh
We're Heavy Drinkers Here, And Women Of Loose %morals-
When A Person Dies
When The Moon Is Lying On The Window Sill
Where Nothing Is Needed, I Walk Like A Child
While Reading Hamlet
Why Are You Wandering Around So
Wild Roses Are Blooming (from A Burned Notebook)
Wild Roses Are Blooming: 4, First Little Song
Wild Roses Are Blooming: 6, The Dream
Wild Roses Are Blooming: 8
Wild Roses Are Blooming: 9, In The Broken Mirror
The Willow
You Can Look Straight Into My Room-
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

A legend in her own time both for her brilliant poetry and for her resistance to oppression, Anna Akhmatova—denounced by the Soviet regime for her “eroticism, mysticism, and political indifference”—is one of the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century.

Before the revolution, Akhmatova was a wildly popular young poet who lived a bohemian life. She was one of the leaders of a movement of poets whose ideal was “beautiful clarity”—in her deeply personal work, themes of love and mourning are conveyed with passionate intensity and economy, her voice by turns tender and fierce. A vocal critic of Stalinism, she saw her work banned for many years and was expelled from the Writers’ Union—condemned as “half nun, half harlot.” Despite this censorship, her reputation continued to flourish underground, and she is still among Russia’s most beloved poets.

Here are poems from all her major works—including the magnificent “Requiem” commemorating the victims of Stalin’s terror—and some that have been newly translated for this edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Everyman's Library; New Expanded Ed edition (May 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307264246
• ISBN-13: 978-0307264244
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,335 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #2 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Akhmatova, Anna
  #15 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Russian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect introductory volume........., June 7, 2000

By	Kathie "ecclesias" (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems of Akhmatova (Paperback)

This is the volume that introduced me to the works of Anna Akhmatova. After having read this in one evening, I could not sleep - I was so moved by her poetry. The translation must have captured her heart and soul because it certainly captured mine - it inspired me to get up in the middle of the night and draw pictures to go with what I had read. I understood at once the love the Russian people have for her. Since then, I have gobbled up everything translated into English that I can find, but I still think this little volume is the best of all and return to it again and again. Enjoy......

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding translation of a marvelous poet, January 1, 2001

By	doc peterson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Poems of Akhmatova: Izbrannye Stikhi (Paperback)

This is a marvelous book. It is extremely difficult to accurately capture the flavor of the original writing in translation, but Kunitz has done this and more - the English itself is poetry. The book is dual language, so readers of Russian can read the original next to the English. Both are excellent.

The selection is fairly representative of Akhmatova's life work, with early poems from 1909, through her affair with the poet Blok in the teens, the Terror and War, to her deathbed in 1961. I particularly enjoyed the translation of the epic "Requiem". Without a doubt, this is the best English version I have ever read. My only complaint is its berevity - at 40 poems, it merely whets the readers appetite for more - a pity, given the outstanding nature of both poet and translator.

For those who are not familiar with Anna Akhmatova, this is a gem. If you have read some of her work, this is a must-have volume. Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simplicity and meaning in poetry, May 9, 2007

By	DOROTHY (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems of Akhmatova: Izbrannye Stikhi (Paperback)

I'm not a great poetry lover, but the simplicity and meaning of her poems is even enough to turn me on to poetry!!!! Her words reach my life experiences and touch my soul.