"Requiem", analysis of Akhmatova's poem. Poem "Requiem Read the requiem briefly

Anna Akhmatova ... The name and surname of this poetess is known to everyone. How many women read her poems with rapture and wept over them, how many kept her manuscripts and bowed before her work? Now the poetry of this outstanding author can be called priceless. Even a century later, her poems are not forgotten, and often appear as motifs, references and appeals in modern literature. But her poem "Requiem" is especially often remembered by the descendants. She will be discussed.

Initially, the poetess planned to write a lyrical cycle of poems dedicated to the period of reaction, which caught the heated revolutionary Russia by surprise. As you know, after civil war and the reign of relative stability, the new government staged demonstrative reprisals against dissident and alien to the proletariat representatives of society, and this persecution ended with a real genocide of the Russian people, when people were imprisoned and executed, trying to keep up with the plan given "from above". One of the first victims of the bloody regime were the closest relatives of Anna Akhmatova - Nikolai Gumilyov, her husband, and their common son, Lev Gumilyov. Anna's husband was shot in 1921 as a counter-revolutionary. The son was arrested only because he bore his father's surname. We can say that it was with this tragedy (the death of a spouse) that the history of writing the Requiem began. So, the first fragments were created back in 1934, and their author, realizing that the losses of the Russian land would not end soon, decided to combine the cycle of poems into a single body of the poem. In 1938-1940 it was completed, but for obvious reasons it was not published. It was in 1939 that Lev Gumilyov was put behind bars.

In the 1960s, during the thaw, Akhmatova read the poem to devoted friends, but after reading it she always burned the manuscript. However, its copies were leaked to samizdat (forbidden literature was copied by hand and passed from hand to hand). Then they got abroad, where they were published "without the knowledge and consent of the author" (this phrase was at least some kind of guarantor of the immunity of the poetess).

The meaning of the name

Requiem is a religious term for a mourning church service for a deceased person. This name was used by famous composers to designate a genre of musical works that served as an accompaniment for the funeral Catholic mass. Widely known, for example, Mozart's Requiem. In the broad sense of the word, it means a certain ritual that accompanies a person's departure to another world.

Anna Akhmatova used the direct meaning of the title "Requiem", dedicating the poem to prisoners condemned to death. The work seemed to sound from the lips of all mothers, wives, daughters, who accompanied their loved ones to death, standing in lines, unable to change anything. In Soviet reality, the only funeral ritual allowed to prisoners was the endless siege of the prison, in which women silently stood in the hope of at least saying goodbye to dear, but doomed family members. Their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons seemed to have been stricken with a fatal illness and were waiting for a denouement, but in fact this illness turned out to be dissent, which the authorities were trying to eradicate. But it eradicated only the color of the nation, without which the development of society proceeded with difficulty.

Genre, size, direction

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new phenomenon in culture captured the world - it was wider and larger than any literary movement, and was divided into many innovative trends. Anna Akhmatova belonged to acmeism, a trend based on clarity of style and objectivity of images. Acmeists strove for a poetic transformation of everyday and even unsightly life phenomena and pursued the goal of ennobling human nature through art. The poem "Requiem" became a magnificent example of a new trend, because it fully corresponded to its aesthetic and moral principles: objective, clear images, classical rigor and directness of style, the author's desire to convey atrocities in the language of poetry in order to warn posterity from the mistakes of their ancestors.

No less interesting is the genre of the work "Requiem" - a poem. According to some compositional features, it belongs to the epic genre, because the work consists of a prologue, main part and epilogue, covers more than one historical era and reveals the relationship between them. Akhmatova reveals a certain tendentious nature of maternal grief in Russian history and urges future generations not to forget about it so as not to allow the tragedy to repeat itself.

The poetic meter in the poem is dynamic, one rhythm overflows into another, and the number of stops in the lines also varies. This is due to the fact that the work was created in fragments over a long time, and the style of the poetess changed, as did her perception of what happened.

Composition

The features of the composition in the poem "Requiem" again indicate the original intention of the poetess - to create a cycle of complete and autonomous works. Therefore, it seems that the book was written in fits and starts, as if it had been repeatedly abandoned and spontaneously supplemented again.

1. Prologue: the first two chapters ("Initiation" and "Introduction"). They bring the reader up to date, show the time and place of action.
2. The first 4 verses show historical parallels between mothers of all times. The lyrical heroine tells fragments from the past: the arrest of her son, the first days of terrible loneliness, the frivolity of youth, which did not know its bitter fate.
3. Chapters 5 and 6 - the mother predicts the death of her son and is tormented by the unknown.
4. Sentence. Message about exile to Siberia.
5. To death. The mother, in desperation, calls out for death to come to her too.
6. Chapter 9 is a prison date, which the heroine carries away in her memory along with the madness of despair.
7. Crucifix. In one quatrain, she conveys the mood of her son, who urges her not to weep at the grave. The author draws a parallel with the crucifixion of Christ - the same innocent martyr as her son. She compares her motherhood with the anguish and confusion of the Virgin.
8. Epilogue. The poet calls on people to build a monument to the suffering of the people, which she expressed in her work. She is afraid to forget what they did to her people in this place.

What is the poem about?

The work, as already mentioned, is autobiographical. It tells how Anna Andreevna came with parcels to her son, imprisoned in a prison fortress. Lev was arrested because his father was executed because of the most dangerous sentence - counter-revolutionary activity. Entire families were destroyed for such an article. So Gumilyov Jr. survived three arrests, one of which, in 1938, ended in exile to Siberia, after which, in 1944, he fought in a penal battalion, and then was again arrested and imprisoned. He, like his mother, who was forbidden to publish, was rehabilitated only after Stalin's death.

First, in the prologue, the poetess is in the present tense and informs her son of exile about the verdict. Now she is alone, because she is not allowed to follow him. With bitterness from the loss, she wanders the streets alone and remembers how she waited for this verdict in long lines for two years. Hundreds of the same women stood there, to whom she dedicates the Requiem. In the introduction, she plunges into this memory. Then she tells how the arrest took place, how she got used to the thought of him, how she lived in bitter and hateful loneliness. She is afraid and tormented by waiting for the execution for 17 months. Then she learns that her child was sentenced to a prison term in Siberia, so she calls the day “bright”, because she was afraid that he would be shot. Then she talks about the meeting that took place and about the pain that the memory of her son's "terrible eyes" causes her. In the epilogue, she talks about what these queues did to women who withered before our eyes. The heroine also notes that if a monument is erected to her, then this must be done in the very place where she and hundreds of other mothers and wives were kept for years in a feeling of complete obscurity. Let this monument be a harsh reminder of what inhumanity reigned in that place at that time.

Main characters and their characteristics

• Lyrical heroine. Akhmatova herself was her prototype. This is a woman with dignity and willpower, who, nevertheless, "threw herself at the feet of the executioner", because she loved her child madly. She is bloodless with grief, because she has already lost her husband through the fault of the same brutal state machine. She is emotional and open to the reader, does not hide her horror. However, her whole being hurts and suffers for her son. About herself, she says distantly: "This woman is sick, this woman is alone." The impression of detachment is intensified when the heroine says that she could not worry like that, and someone else does it for her. Previously, she was "the mocker and favorite of all friends", and now the very embodiment of torment, calling for death. On a date with her son, madness reaches its climax, and the woman surrenders to him, but soon her composure returns, because her son is still alive, which means that there is hope as an incentive to live and fight.
• Son. His character is less fully revealed, but a comparison with Christ gives us a sufficient idea of ​​him. He is also innocent and holy in his humble torment. He tries his best to console his mother on their only date, even though his scary look does not hide from her. About his bitter fate of his son, she succinctly reports: “And when, mad with flour, the already condemned regiments marched.” That is, a young man holds himself with enviable courage and dignity even in such a situation, since he is trying to maintain the self-control of loved ones.
• Women's images in the poem "Requiem" are filled with strength, patience, selflessness, but at the same time, inexpressible torment and anxiety for the fate of loved ones. This anxiety withers their faces like autumn leaves. Waiting and uncertainty destroy their vitality. But their grief-stricken faces are full of determination: they stand in the cold, in the heat, just to achieve the right to see and support their relatives. The heroine affectionately calls them friends and prophesies Siberian exile for them, because she has no doubt that all those who can will follow their loved ones into exile. The author compares their images with the face of the Mother of God, who silently and meekly experiences the martyrdom of her son.

Subject

• The theme of memory. The author urges readers to never forget the grief of the people, which is described in the poem "Requiem". In the epilogue, he says that eternal sorrow should serve as a reproach and a lesson to people that such a tragedy happened on this earth. With this in mind, they must prevent this cruel persecution from recurring. Mother calls to witness her bitter truth all those who stood with her in these lines and asked for one thing - a monument to these unreasonably ruined souls that languish on the other side of the prison walls.
• The theme of motherly compassion. The mother loves her son, and all the time she is tormented by the realization of his captivity and her helplessness. She imagines how the light makes its way through the prison window, how the lines of prisoners go, and among them is her innocently suffering child. From this constant horror, waiting for a sentence, standing in hopelessly long lines, a woman becomes clouded in her mind, and her face, like hundreds of faces, falls and fades in endless anguish. She raises her mother's grief above the others, saying that the apostles and Mary Magdalene wept over the body of Christ, but none of them even dared to look at the face of his mother, who stood motionless next to the tomb.
• Homeland theme. ABOUT tragic fate Akhmatova writes of her country like this: "And innocent Rus writhed under bloody boots and under the tires of black marus." To some extent, she identifies the fatherland with those prisoners who fell victim to repression. In this case, the method of impersonation is used, that is, Rus' is writhing under the blows, like a living prisoner trapped in prison dungeons. The grief of the people expresses the sorrow of the motherland, comparable only to the maternal suffering of a woman who has lost her son.
• The theme of people's suffering and sorrow is expressed in the description of a living queue, endless, oppressive, stagnant for years. There, the old woman “wailed like a wounded beast”, and the one “that was barely brought to the window”, and the one “that the dear one does not trample the ground”, and the one “that beautifully shook her head, said: “I come here as if I were home "". Both old and young were bound by one misfortune. Even the description of the city speaks of general, unspoken mourning: “It was when only the dead smiled, glad for peace, and Leningrad swayed like an unnecessary appendage near its prisons.” The steamboat horns sang of separation to the rhythm of the trampling of the ranks of condemned people. All these sketches speak of a single spirit of sadness that has engulfed the Russian lands.
• Time theme. Akhmatova in "Requiem" unites several eras, her poems are like memories and forebodings, and not a chronologically built story. Therefore, in the poem, the time of action is constantly changing, in addition, there are historical allusions, appeals to other centuries. For example, the lyrical heroine compares herself to the archery wives who howled at the walls of the Kremlin. The reader constantly jerks from one event to another: arrest, sentencing, everyday life in the prison queue, and so on. For the poetess, time has acquired the routine and colorlessness of expectation, so she measures it by the coordinates of the events that have taken place, and the gaps before these coordinates are filled with monotonous longing. Time also promises danger, because it brings oblivion, and this is what a mother who has experienced such grief and humiliation is afraid of. Forgetfulness means forgiveness, and she will not go for that.
• Theme of love. Women do not betray their loved ones in trouble and selflessly expect at least news about their fate. In this unequal battle with the system of suppression of the people, they are driven by love, before which all the prisons of the world are powerless.

Idea

Anna Akhmatova herself erected the monument she spoke about in the epilogue. The meaning of the poem "Requiem" is to erect an immortal monument in memory of the ruined lives. The silent suffering of innocent people was to result in a cry that would be heard through the ages. The poetess draws the reader's attention to the fact that her work is based on the grief of the whole people, and not her personal drama: “And if they clamp my exhausted mouth, with which a hundred million people scream ...”. The title of the work also speaks about the idea - it is a funeral rite, the music of death that accompanies the funeral. The motive of death permeates the entire narrative, that is, these verses are an epitaph for those who unjustly sunk into oblivion, who were quietly and imperceptibly killed, tortured, destroyed in the country of victorious lawlessness.

Problems

The problems of the poem "Requiem" are multifaceted and topical, because even now innocent people become victims of political repression, and their relatives are not able to change anything.

• Injustice. The sons, husbands and fathers of women standing in line suffered innocently, their fate is determined by the slightest belonging to phenomena alien to the new government. For example, the son of Akhmatova, the prototype of the hero of Requiem, was convicted for bearing the surname of his father, who was convicted of counter-revolutionary activities. The symbol of the demonic power of the dictatorship is a blood-red star, pursuing the heroine everywhere. This is a symbol of new power, which in its meaning in the poem is duplicated with the star of death, an attribute of the Antichrist.
• The problem of historical memory. Akhmatova is afraid that the grief of these people will be forgotten by new generations, because the power of the proletariat ruthlessly destroys any sprouts of dissent and rewrites history for itself. The poetess brilliantly predicted that her "exhausted mouth" would be shut up for many years, forbidding publishing houses to print her works. Even when the ban was lifted, she was ruthlessly criticized and silenced at party congresses. The report of the official Zhdanov is widely known, who accused Anna of being a representative of "reactionary obscurantism and renegade in politics and art." “The range of her poetry is limited to poverty, the poetry of an enraged lady, rushing between the boudoir and the prayer room,” said Zhdanov. She was afraid of this: under the auspices of the struggle for the interests of the people, he was ruthlessly robbed, depriving him of the enormous wealth of national literature and history.
• Helplessness and lawlessness. The heroine, with all her love, is powerless to change the situation of her son, like all her friends in misfortune. They are only free to wait for news, but there is no one to wait for help. There is no justice, as well as humanism, sympathy and pity, everyone is captured by a wave of stuffy fear and they speak in a whisper, so as not to frighten away their own lives, which can be taken away at any moment.

Criticism

The opinion of critics about the poem "Requiem" did not develop immediately, since the work was officially published in Russia only in the 80s of the 20th century, after the death of Akhmatova. In Soviet literary criticism, it was customary to belittle the dignity of the author for ideological inconsistency with the political propaganda that has been unfolding throughout the 70 years of the existence of the USSR. For example, Zhdanov's report, which has already been quoted above, is very indicative. The official clearly has the talent of a propagandist, so his expressions do not differ in argumentation, but are colorful in stylistic terms:

Her main theme is love-erotic motifs intertwined with motifs of sadness, melancholy, death, mysticism, doom. A sense of doom, ... gloomy tones of near-death hopelessness, mystical experiences mixed with erotica - such is the spiritual world of Akhmatova. Not a nun, not a harlot, but rather, a harlot and a nun, in whom fornication is mixed with prayer.

Zhdanov, in his report, insists that Akhmatova will have a bad influence on young people, because she “propagates” despondency and longing for the bourgeois past:

Needless to say, such sentiments or the preaching of such sentiments can only have a negative influence on our youth, can poison their minds with a rotten spirit of lack of ideas, apoliticality, and despondency.

Since the poem was published abroad, Soviet emigrants spoke about it, who had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the text and speak about it without censorship. For example, a detailed analysis of the "Requiem" was made by the poet Joseph Brodsky, while in America after he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. He spoke admiringly about Akhmatova’s work, not only because he was in solidarity with her civil position, but also because he was personally acquainted with her:

"Requiem" is a work that constantly balances on the verge of insanity, which is introduced not by the catastrophe itself, not by the loss of a son, but by this moral schizophrenia, this split - not consciousness, but conscience.

Brodsky noticed that the author was torn from internal contradictions, because the poet must perceive and describe the object from a distance, and Akhmatova experienced personal grief at that moment, which could not be objectively described. There was a battle between the writer and the mother, who saw these events in different ways. Hence the forced lines: "No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering." The reviewer described this internal conflict as follows:

For me, the most important thing in Requiem is the theme of duality, the theme of the author's inability to respond adequately. It is clear that Akhmatova describes all the horrors of the "great terror". But at the same time, she keeps talking about being close to madness. Here is the biggest truth.

The critic Antoly Naiman argued with Zhdanov and did not agree that the poetess was alien to Soviet society and harmful to it. He convincingly proves that Akhmatova differs from the canonical writers of the USSR only in that her work is deeply personal and filled with religious motives. For the rest, he said:

Strictly speaking, "Requiem" is Soviet poetry, realized in the ideal form that all its declarations describe. The hero of this poetry is the people. Not called so from political, national and other ideological interests, a greater or lesser multitude of people, but the whole people: every single one participates on one side or the other in what is happening. This position speaks on behalf of the people, the poet is with him, a part of him. Its language is almost newspaper-like, understandable to the people, its methods are frontal. And this poetry is full of love for the people.

Another review was written by art historian V.Ya. Vilenkin. In it, he says that the work should not be tormented by scientific research, it is already understandable, and lofty, ponderous research will not add anything to this.

Its (cycle of poems) folk origins and its folk poetic scale are self-evident. Personally experienced, autobiographical sinks in it, retaining only the immensity of suffering.

Another literary critic, E.S. Dobin, said that since the 1930s, “Akhmatova’s lyrical hero completely merges with the author” and reveals the “character of the poet himself”, but also that “the craving for the close, nearby lying”, which distinguished Akhmatova’s early work, now replaces the principle of “approaching the far. But the distant is not extramundane, but human.”

The writer and critic Y. Karyakin most succinctly expressed the main idea of ​​the work, which captured his imagination with its scale and epicness.

This is truly a folk requiem: weeping for the people, the focus of all their pain. Akhmatova's poetry is the confession of a man who lives with all the troubles, pains and passions of his time and his land.

It is known that Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the compiler of introductory articles and the author of epigraphs to Akhmatova's collections, spoke of her work with due respect and especially appreciated the poem "Requiem" as the greatest feat, the heroic ascent to Golgotha, where the crucifixion was inevitable. She miraculously managed to save her life, but her “exhausted mouth” was shut up.

"Requiem" has become a single whole, although there is also a folk song, and Lermontov, and Tyutchev, and Blok, and Nekrasov, and - especially in the finale - Pushkin: "... And let the prison dove roam in the distance, And ships quietly go along the Neva" . All the lyrical classics are magically combined in this, perhaps the tiniest great poem in the world.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

The wound inflicted on the homeland, each of us
feels in the depths of his heart.
V. Hugo

True poetry is beautiful because it expresses the high truth of the poet's soul and the merciless truth of time. A. Akhmatova understood this, and readers who love her poetry and I am sure will always love her poems penetrating right into the soul also understand this.

To understand the great courage of Akhmatova’s soul, one must know her most tragic work, Requiem, because the truth is not only the death of innocent people, blood and tears, it is also a cleansing from all filth, from everything vile, dirty and terrible that was going on during the Bolshevik terror against their own people. Hushing up this side of the life of our state threatens with new tragedies. Openness cleanses, makes it impossible for this to happen again sometime in our history.

The poem "Requiem" was created from 1935 to 1940. In those distant years, the poem could only be read in handwritten lists. What truth did this work of Akhmatova keep that they were afraid to publish it for so long? It was the truth about Stalin's repressions. Akhmatova knew firsthand about them: her only son, Lev Gumilyov, was arrested, whose father, the famous Russian poet N. Gumilyov, a former tsarist officer, was shot by the Bolsheviks back in the 1920s.

Akhmatova spent seventeen long months in prison queues until the fate of her son was decided. One day they recognized her in this mournful queue and asked: “Can you describe this?” Akhmatova answered firmly: "I can." It was an oath to the people with whom she was always together, sharing all their misfortunes.

Akhmatova fulfilled her oath. She described the time, “when only the dead smiled, glad to be at peace,” when the people suffered either in prisons or near them. Akhmatova, “three hundredth with a transfer and with her hot tear” under the Crosses (this is the name of the prison in St. Petersburg) stands in line next to “involuntary friends” and prays for everyone who stood there “both in the bitter cold and in the July heat.”

She would like to call these sufferers by name, "Yes, they took away the list, and there is nowhere to find out." With her poem, Akhmatova commemorated everyone on this and that side of the prison walls and hoped that even if they shut her mouth, “with which a hundred million people scream,” she would also be remembered on the eve of her “funeral day.” Akhmatova ends the poem with a testament: if someday, she writes, they want to erect a monument to her in Russia, she asks not to erect it either by the sea, where she was born, or in Tsarskoe Selo, where her happy youth passed, material from the site

The son of Akhmatova, having gone through prisons and camps, surprisingly, remained alive. He became a famous historian and ethnographer. In 1962, Akhmatova brought the poem to the Novy Mir magazine. Received a refusal. In the same year, the poem was sent abroad and printed in Munich. During her lifetime, Akhmatova saw only this edition, which, of course, was not distributed in her homeland, since, according to the concepts of that time, it was published illegally. And only in the 1980s we were able to read the poem "Requiem" published in our homeland. The poetry of A. Akhmatova, including her Requiem, is rightfully considered one of the most striking phenomena in Russian poetry of the 20th century.

Comprehensive study of the poem "Requiem" by Akhmatova, analysis of composition, artistic means, comprehension of the name, help to feel the deep ideas of the poetic work.

Despite the small volume, each line is significant in content and strength of feelings. The reader is not able to indifferently perceive the events reflected in the poem.

The history of the creation of "Requiem" by A. Akhmatova

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 by firing squad. Subsequently, the death penalty was replaced by exile.

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966)

For the first time Lev Gumilyov was 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 cycle of poems about Russian women who are going through a difficult time, suffering for their men deprived of their liberty.

In the early 1960s, Anna Akhmatova combined disparate works into a single whole, giving the poem the name "Requiem".

Why is the poem called "Requiem"

In Catholicism, a religious rite performed for the dead, and its mourning musical accompaniment, is called a requiem. 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.

Genre, direction and size

"Requiem" can be attributed to a new trend in literature, acmeism, which opposes symbolism and proclaims the clarity and accuracy of the word, the directness of style and the clarity of images.

The goal of literary innovators was to ennoble man through art. Akhmatova, like all acmeists, strove for poetic changes in the ordinary and sometimes unattractive phenomena of life.

The work "Requiem" is fully consistent with the innovative trend of acmeism with its classical rigor of style and the desire to convey atrocities and outrages in poetic language.

The genre of "Requiem" is a poem. But many literary critics cannot unequivocally determine the genre of the work due to the similarity with the poetic cycle. The unity of the idea, the lyrical basis that connects the individual fragments, helps to attribute the "Requiem" to the poem.

A logical and sequentially built plot unfolds before the reader, describing an entire era in abbreviation. The story is told in the first person, acting at the same time as a poet and a lyrical hero.

The poetic meter of the work is not devoid of a peculiar dynamics, characterized by overflowing rhythms and a varying number of stops in the lines.

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 from the last two chapters and the main part.

Each part has a special emotional meaning and carries its own sensual load. The poem is replete with lyrical experiences, and in the prologue and epilogue there is a tendency towards generalizations, epic.

The preface consists of prose text, reminiscent of a newspaper clipping. This technique helps the reader to plunge into the atmosphere of the described era.

In the Dedication following the Preface, the theme of the prosaic introduction is continued, with the scale of the events described intensified:

The biographical theme of the poem - the imprisonment of a son and the moral torment of a suffering mother - sounds 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 is sad about her son, who is being led to execution. This eternal heroine of Russian history in poetic lamentation conveys the full depth of grief that tears the soul:

The plot center of the poem is the fifth and sixth passage, dedicated to the son languishing in prison. Each poem is a compositionally complete, integral work of art, united by common mournful motives, a sense 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 people's suffering.

Characteristics of the main characters

The main lyrical heroine of the poem is the author of the "Requiem", and the mother, worried about the fate of her son, and an ordinary woman from the people. Each of these images is unique and, flowing smoothly, 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 personal experiences of the heroine are replaced by detachment in the assessments of the behavior of the mother plunged into despair: "This woman is sick, this woman is alone."

The author from the side looks at everything that happens around. It is difficult to imagine how, being in the past "a mocker and favorite of all friends", the heroine turned into a shadow that calls for death. A date with her son causes a storm of emotions in the soul of the mother, but despair is replaced by hope, a desire to fight to the end.

The image of the son is revealed in the work not so fully and multifaceted, but his comparison with Christ emphasizes the innocence and holiness of the hero. He appears as a humble martyr, trying to comfort and support his mother.

The other main characters of the poem are collective female images worried about the fate of close men. They languish in the unknown, endure bitter cold and scorching heat in anticipation of brief dates. The author personifies them with the Mother of God, meekly enduring adversity.

Themes of the poem "Requiem"

The central theme of the work is the theme of memory, a return to the memories of the past, the preservation of the experienced, felt and seen. And this is not only the memory of one person, but also the people's memory of people united by a common grief:

The cry of mothers for their sons, continuing the theme of memory, is heard in verses, starting with the Introduction. Then there is the motive of death, generated by the expectation of execution, the inevitability of an inevitable end. The reader is presented with the image of the mother, which is personified by the Mother of God, who survived the terrible death of her son.

The theme of the suffering Motherland, inextricably linked with the fate of her people, is revealed by Akhmatova in Requiem:

After all, Motherland is the same mother who worries about her sons, who were unjustly accused and fell victims of cruel repressions.

And through all the sorrows, the theme of love shines, conquering evil and life's hardships. Women's selfless love is able to overcome any obstacles in the fight against the system.

Topics covered in the poem "Requiem":

• memory;
• mothers;
• Motherland;
• the suffering of the people;
• time;
• love.

Analysis of each chapter "Requiem" by A. Akhmatova

The poems that make up the Requiem were written between 1935 and 1940. The poem was published in Russia two decades after the death of Anna Andreevna, in 1988.

The prose lines “Instead of a preface” open the narrative, explaining the whole idea.

The reader finds himself in a Leningrad prison queue in the 1930s, where everyone is in a daze and speaks in a "whisper".

And to the question of a 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 in the folk language and addressed to the people. The poet speaks of his involvement in the disasters of the country:

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 painful to wait for a court decision, on which the future fate of a loved one will depend.

But sad feelings are experienced not only by people, but also by the motherland, Russia, responding to suffering:

Here also appears the biblical image, the herald of the Apocalypse:

In the introductory part of the Requiem, the most important motives and main images are outlined, which are developed in the subsequent chapters of the poem. A lyrical heroine appears, watching her son being taken away “at dawn”. Loneliness comes instantly

Biographical details of Akhmatova's life, time frame, boundless tenderness and love for her son are described:

In the seventh chapter "Sentence" in simple terms describes inhuman experiences, attempts to understand and come to terms with the terrible reality.

But it is impossible to accept and endure what happened, therefore the eighth chapter is called "Towards Death." The saddened heroine sees no other way out than to die. She longs for oblivion and calls for death:

The ninth chapter tells of 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 sends her words to everyone who has experienced similar feelings. She prays for all who stood with her in prison lines:

The second part deals with 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:

Conclusion

"Requiem" is a special poetic work of Anna Akhmatova, which goes beyond the context of the ordinary 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 a simple, understandable language. They are imbued with love for the motherland and its inhabitants.

Anna Andreevna has been gone for a long time, and her work is still relevant and interesting to the reader. Her poems need to be felt, they have a strong effect on people, forcing them to empathize with the heroes.

The poem "Requiem" by Akhmatova was finally written in the 1960s, although its first drafts date back to 1934. The poetess read manuscripts to people she trusted, and then immediately burned them. This is one of the most powerful, poignant works of Akhmatova, which describes the terrible era of Stalin's repressions.

Main characters

Lyrical heroine- a mother, an incredibly strong, persistent woman who happened to outlive her son, the prototype of Akhmatova.

Other characters

Son- the innocently convicted and executed son of the main character.

Collective image of a Russian woman- all the women who for centuries sent their husbands and sons to the scaffold.

dedication

The poem is dedicated to mothers, sisters, daughters of all those who ended up in dungeons and camps without guilt.

Introduction

This story began in the 30s of the 20th century, when the prisons of Leningrad were filled to the limit, and the flow of convicts did not weaken. It was a terrible time when "innocent Rus' writhed under bloody boots."

1

The mother recalls how at dawn they came to arrest her son. She will never forget those terrible moments. And now she had only one thing left - "like archery wives, howl under the Kremlin towers."

2

Only the "yellow month" witnessed the anguish of a sick lonely woman. She asks to pray for her, because "the husband is in the grave, the son is in prison."

3

The mental anguish of the heroine is so strong that she believes that "it's someone else who is suffering" - she would not be able to do that.

4

It is difficult for the heroine to realize that all this happened to her, a once cheerful and carefree woman. Now her destiny is “to burn through the New Year’s ice with her hot tear”, standing in a huge queue with a transfer for her son.

5

The uncertain situation with her son lasted seventeen months, and the heroine "threw herself at the feet of the executioner", begging him for mercy. During this time, she was so exhausted that she no longer understood “who is the beast, who is the man, and how long to wait for the execution.”

6

Weeks flew by after weeks, and every day the heroine thought about how her son feels, sitting behind bars.

7

The terrible day came when the verdict was announced to the son. The woman was already mentally prepared for this, but she still had a lot to do - “you need to kill the memory to the end, you need to make the soul petrified, you need to learn to live again.”

8

The heroine was seized by indifference to life, she called for death to come for her under any guise.

9

The terrible trials that befell the heroine became the reason that "madness covered half of the soul with the wing of the soul."

10

The heroine turned to Christian images, comparing a simple woman with a biblical Mother, whose innocent son was crucified on a cross.

Epilogue

The poetess is afraid that she will ever forget all the horror that happened to her and hundreds of thousands of other women. And even if a monument is erected to her, then it should stand in the place where she spent seventeen terrible months awaiting her son's verdict.

Conclusion

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Requiem

During the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, I spent seventeen months in prison queues in Leningrad. Once, someone "identified" me. Then the woman standing behind me, who, of course, had never heard my name, woke up from the stupor characteristic of all of us and asked in my ear (there everyone spoke in a whisper):
- Can you describe it?
And I said
- Can.
Then something like a smile flickered across what had once been her face.

dedication

Mountains bend before this grief,
The great river does not flow
But the prison gates are strong,
And behind them "convict holes"
And deadly sadness.
For someone the fresh wind blows,
For someone, the sunset basks -
We don't know, we're the same everywhere
We hear only the hateful rattle of the keys
Yes, steps are heavy soldiers.
We got up as if for an early mass,
We walked through the wild capital,
They met there, the dead lifeless,
The sun is lower and the Neva is foggy,
And hope sings in the distance.
The verdict ... And immediately the tears will gush,
Already separated from everyone
As if life is taken out of the heart with pain,
As if rudely overturned,
But it goes... It staggers... Alone...
Where are the unwitting girlfriends now
My two crazy years?
What does it seem to them in the Siberian blizzard,
What does it seem to them in the lunar circle?
To them I send my farewell greetings.

INTRODUCTION

It was when I smiled
Only the dead, happy with peace.
And swayed with an unnecessary pendant
Near the prisons of their Leningrad.
And when, mad with torment,
There were already condemned regiments,
And a short parting song
Locomotive whistles sang,
The death stars were above us
And innocent Rus' writhed
Under the bloody boots
And under the tires of black marus.

They took you away at dawn
Behind you, as if on a takeaway, I walked,
Children were crying in the dark room,
At the goddess, the candle swam.
Icons on your lips are cold,
Death sweat on the brow... Don't forget!
I will be like archery wives,
Howl under the Kremlin towers.

The quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house.

Enters in a cap on one side,
Sees the yellow moon shadow.

This woman is sick
This woman is alone.

Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.

No, it's not me, it's someone else suffering.
I couldn't do that, but what happened
Let the black cloth cover
And let them carry the lanterns ...
Night.

I would show you, mocker
And the favorite of all friends,
Tsarskoye Selo merry sinner,
What will happen to your life
Like a three hundredth, with a transmission,
Under the Crosses you will stand
And with my hot tear
New Year's ice to burn.
There the prison poplar sways,
And not a sound - but how much is there
Innocent lives are ending...

I've been screaming for seventeen months
I'm calling you home
I threw myself at the feet of the executioner,
You are my son and my horror.
Everything is messed up,
And I can't make out
Now who is the beast, who is the man,
And how long to wait for the execution.
And only dusty flowers
And the ringing of the censer, and traces
Somewhere to nowhere
And looks straight into my eyes
And threatened with imminent death
Huge star.

Easy weeks fly
What happened, I don't understand.
How do you, son, go to jail
White nights looked
How do they look again?
With a hawk's hot eye,
About your high cross
And they talk about death.

SENTENCE

And the stone word fell
On my still living chest.
Nothing, because I was ready
I'll deal with it somehow.

I have a lot to do today:
We must kill the memory to the end,
It is necessary that the soul turned to stone,
We must learn to live again.

But not that ... The hot rustle of summer,
Like a holiday outside my window.
I've been anticipating this for a long time.
Bright day and empty house.

TO DEATH

You will come anyway - why not now?
I'm waiting for you - it's very difficult for me.
I turned off the light and opened the door
You, so simple and wonderful.
Take any form for this,
Break in with a poisoned projectile
Or sneak up with a weight like an experienced bandit,
Or poison with a typhoid child.
Or a fairy tale invented by you
And everyone is sickeningly familiar, -
So that I can see the top of the blue hat
And the house manager, pale with fear.
I don't care now. The Yenisei swirls
The polar star is shining.
And the blue sparkle of beloved eyes
The last horror covers.

Already madness wing
Soul covered half
And drink fiery wine
And beckons to the black valley.

And I realized that he
I must give up the victory
Listening to your
Already as if someone else's delirium.

And won't let anything
I take it with me
(No matter how you ask him
And no matter how you bother with a prayer):

Not a son of terrible eyes -
petrified suffering,
Not the day when the storm came
Not an hour of prison rendezvous,

Not the sweet coolness of hands,
Not linden agitated shadows,
Not a distant light sound -
Words of last consolation.

CRUCIFICATION

Do not cry for me, Mati,
in the tomb of the seer.

The choir of angels glorified the great hour,
And the heavens went up in flames.
Father said: "Almost left me!"
And mothers: "Oh, don't cry for me..."

Magdalene fought and sobbed,
The beloved student turned to stone,
And to where silently Mother stood,
So no one dared to look.

I learned how faces fall,
How fear peeks out from under the eyelids,
Like cuneiform hard pages
Suffering brings out on the cheeks,
Like curls of ashen and black
Suddenly become silver
The smile withers on the lips of the submissive,
And fear trembles in a dry laugh.
And I'm not praying for myself alone
And about everyone who stood there with me,
And in the bitter cold, and in the July heat
Under the blinding red wall.

Again the hour of the funeral approached.
I see, I hear, I feel you:

And the one that was barely brought to the window,
And the one that does not trample the earth, dear,

And the one that beautifully shook her head,
She said: "I come here as if I were home."

I would like to name everyone
Yes, the list was taken away, and there is nowhere to find out.

For them I wove a wide cover
Of the poor, they have overheard words.

I remember them always and everywhere,
I will not forget about them even in a new trouble,

And if my exhausted mouth is clamped,
To which a hundred million people shout,

May they also remember me
On the eve of my memorial day.

And if ever in this country
They will erect a monument to me,

I give my consent to this triumph,
But only with the condition - do not put it

Not near the sea where I was born:
The last connection with the sea is broken,

Not in the royal garden at the treasured stump,
Where the inconsolable shadow is looking for me,

And here, where I stood for three hundred hours
And where the bolt was not opened for me.

Then, as in blissful death I fear
Forget the rumble of black marus,

Forget how hateful the door slammed
And the old woman howled like a wounded animal.

And let from motionless and bronze eyelids
Like tears, melted snow flows,

And let the prison dove roam in the distance,
And the ships are quietly moving along the Neva.