White Night

Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)



I haven't locked the door,
Nor lit the candles,
You don't know, don't care,
That tired I haven't the strength
To decide to go to bed.
Seeing the fields fade in
The sunset murk of pine-needles,
And to know all is lost,

That life is a cursed hell:
I've got drunk
On your voice in the doorway.
I was sure you'd come back.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

21 sec read
79

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXXXXAX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 326
Words 65
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 4

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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