Of all the poets we read for today, my favorite and the one that struck me the most with her language was Anna Akhmatova. She was the one that for me managed to convey great meaning within her poems without getting muddled in a vague and all encompassing language that poets tend to use. She paints a distinct setting for her words to center around, this can be seen in her works, “In the Evening” and “Evening hours at the Table.” She uses the setting of the garden and the dining table in these poems respectively to then elaborate on the themes of disconnect between man and woman in her own personal experience (in the context of the narrative of the poem).

I read many of these poems by Akhmatova to be a continuation of the burgeoning female tradition in writing that we discussed last class with the writing of Zinovieva-Annibal. This, I believe, cam be witnessed by the afore mentioned poems. “In the Evening” provides this contrast of friend and lover, possessiveness and passion. The man in the poem has “no passion in his touch,” despite being her “true friend;” in his eyes, she is merely a possession for his lust, most significantly in the word “horsewoman,” referring to the sexual. The disconnect and the refutation of the conventionalities of traditional gender roles is exemplified in the last stanza: “The violins’ mourning voices, / sing above the spreading smoke, / ‘Give thanks to heaven: / you are alone with your love for the first time.” The pairing of love with the mourning voices of the violin is a clear indication of the true nature of this pairing as an unequal and possessive relationship.

The ideas of decay, passing of time, and the passing from the old to the new is a recurring theme throughout her poems as well. This is present in her poems “I have come to replace you sister,” and “How terribly my body has changed.” The idea of decay that she explores is the gradual loss of the ability to distinguish art and beauty in the world. There is nothing beautiful in this decay, and the old must be swept aside for the new.  In the first poem mentioned, the old can “longer understand the bird’s song,” or “notice the stars or summer lightning.” The new, however, is able to do all those things and “was like a white banner, / … like the light from a beacon.” The theme of there being no beauty in death and decay is also portrayed in the second poem mentioned, where there are no thunderclaps or thunderbolts or a loud joyous voice from the angels to mark her death. This then idealizes youth as being the epitome of beauty and inspiration able to discern true are and beauty and is able to transpose them on the page.