But Listen, I Am Warning You

Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)



But listen, I am warning you
I'm living for the very last time.
Not as a swallow, nor a maple,
Not as a reed, nor as a star,
Not as spring water,
Nor as the toll of bells…
Will I return to trouble men
Nor will I vex their dreams again
With my insatiable moans.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

17 sec read
136

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 262
Words 57
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 9

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova was born in 1889 in Odessa on the Black Sea coast. In 1910 she married Nikolai Gumilev, who was also a poet. He was shot as an alleged counter-revolutionary in 1921. Very little of Akhmatova's poetry was published between 1923 and 1941. After Stalin's death her poetry began to be published again. She died in 1966, in a suburb of Moscow. more…

All Anna Akhmatova poems | Anna Akhmatova Books

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