Essay on the topic The meaning of the title of the poem by A. A

Anna Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” poignant in its degree of tragedy, was written from 1935 to 1940. Until the 1950s, the poet kept her text in her memory, not daring to write it down on paper, so as not to be subject to reprisals. Only after Stalin's death was the poem written down, but the truth expressed in it was still dangerous, and publication was impossible. But “manuscripts don’t burn,” eternal art remains alive. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” which contained the pain of the hearts of thousands of Russian women, was published in 1988, when its author had been dead for 22 years.

Anna Akhmatova, together with her people, went through scary time“general muteness”, when the torment is overwhelming, becomes unbearable, and you can’t scream. Her fate is tragic. Akhmatova's husband, the remarkable Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot in 1921 on false charges of conspiracy against new government Bolsheviks. Talent and intelligence were persecuted by Stalin's executioners until the tenth generation. Usually, after the arrested person, his wife, ex-wife, their children and relatives went to the camps. The son of Gumilyov and Akhmatova, Lev, was arrested in the thirties and again on false charges. Akhmatova’s husband, N.N. Punin, was also arrested. Arbitrariness reigned in the country, an atmosphere of unbearable fear was intensified, and everyone expected arrest.

The title “Requiem,” which means “funeral mass,” very accurately corresponds to the feelings of the poetess, who recalled: “During the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, I spent seventeen months in prison lines in Leningrad.”

I was then with my people,

Where my people, unfortunately, were.

In the poem, Akhmatova speaks on behalf of millions of people who did not understand what their relatives were accused of and tried to get at least some information from the authorities about their fate. The “word of stone” was the mother’s death sentence for her son, which was later replaced by imprisonment in the camps. Akhmatova waited for her son for twenty years. But even this was not enough for the authorities. In 1946, the persecution of writers began. Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were sharply criticized, and their works were no longer published. The strong-willed poetess withstood all the blows of fate.

The poem “Requiem” expresses the immense grief of the people, the defenselessness of people, and the loss of moral guidelines:

Everything's messed up forever

And I can't make it out

Now, who is the beast, who is the man,

And how long will it be to wait for execution?

Akhmatova, like no one else, was able to express the extreme mental state of a person in succinct, short lines of her poems. The situation of hopelessness, doom and absurdity of what is happening makes the author doubt his own mental health:

Madness is already on the wing

Half of my soul was covered,

And he drinks fiery wine,

And beckons to the black valley.

And I realized that he

I must concede victory

Listening to your own

Already like someone else's delirium.

There is no hyperbole in Akhmatova's poem. The grief experienced by the “people of a hundred million” can no longer be exaggerated. Afraid of going crazy, the heroine internally distances herself from events and looks at herself from the outside:

No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering.

I couldn't do that, but what happened

Let the black cloth cover

And let the lanterns be taken away...

Night.

The epithets in the poem intensify the disgust of terror against one’s own people, evoke a feeling of horror, and describe the desolation in the country: “deadly melancholy,” “guiltless” Rus', “heavy” steps of soldiers, “petrified” suffering. The author creates the image of a “blind red” wall of power, against which the people fight in the hope of justice:

And I’m not praying for myself alone,

And about everyone who stood there with me

And in severe hunger, and in the July heat

Under the blinding red wall.

In the poem, Akhmatova uses religious symbolism, for example, the image of the mother of Christ, the Virgin Mary, who also suffered for her son.

Having experienced such grief, Akhmatova cannot remain silent, she testifies. The poem creates the effect of polyphony, as if different people are speaking, and the lines hang in the air:

This woman is sick

This woman is alone

Husband in the grave, son in prison,

Pray for me.

The poem contains many metaphors that amaze with the skill and strength of feelings and will never be forgotten: “mountains bend before this grief,” “the death stars stood above us,” “...and burn through the New Year’s ice with your hot tears.” The poem also contains such artistic means as allegories, symbols, and personifications. All of them create a tragic requiem for all those innocently killed, slandered, and disappeared forever in the “black convict holes.”

The poem “Requiem” ends with a solemn poem, in which one feels the joy of victory over the horror and numbness of many years, the preservation of memory and common sense. The creation of such a poem is a real civic feat of Akhmatova.

Anna Akhmatova's poem "Requiem", poignant in its degree of tragedy, was written from 1935 to 1940. Until the 1950s, the poet kept her text in her memory, not daring to write it down on paper, so as not to be subject to reprisals. Only after Stalin's death was the poem written down, but the truth expressed in it was still dangerous, and publication was impossible. But “manuscripts don’t burn,” eternal art remains alive. Akhmatova's poem "Requiem", which contained the pain of the hearts of thousands of Russian women, was published in 1988, when its author had been dead for 22 years.

Anna Akhmatova, together with her people, went through a terrible time of “universal muteness,” when the torment overwhelms, becomes unbearable, and it is impossible to scream. Her fate is tragic. Akhmatova’s husband, the remarkable Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot in 1921 on false charges of conspiracy against the new Bolshevik government. Talent and intelligence were persecuted by Stalin's executioners until the tenth generation. Usually, after the arrested person, his wife, ex-wife, their children and relatives went to the camps. The son of Gumilyov and Akhmatova, Lev, was arrested in the thirties and again on false charges. Akhmatova’s husband, N.N. Punin, was also arrested. Arbitrariness reigned in the country, an atmosphere of unbearable fear was intensified, and everyone expected arrest.

The title “Requiem,” which means “funeral mass,” very accurately corresponds to the feelings of the poetess, who recalled: “During the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, I spent seventeen months in prison lines in Leningrad.”

I was then with my people, Where my people, unfortunately, were.

In the poem, Akhmatova speaks on behalf of millions of people who did not understand what their relatives were accused of and tried to get at least some information from the authorities about their fate. The “word of stone” was the mother’s death sentence for her son, which was later replaced by imprisonment in the camps. Akhmatova waited for her son for twenty years. But even this was not enough for the authorities. In 1946, the persecution of writers began. Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were sharply criticized, and their works were no longer published. The strong-willed poetess withstood all the blows of fate.

The poem "Requiem" expresses the immense grief of the people, the defenselessness of people, and the loss of moral guidelines:

Everything is forever mixed up, And I can’t figure out now who is the beast, who is the man, And how long will it be to wait for the execution.

Akhmatova, like no one else, was able to express the extreme mental state of a person in succinct, short lines of her poems. The situation of hopelessness, doom and absurdity of what is happening makes the author doubt his own mental health:

Madness has already covered half of the Soul with its wing, And feeds it with fiery wine, And beckons into the black valley. And I realized that I must give up victory to him, listening to my own, as if someone else’s, delirium.

There is no hyperbole in Akhmatova's poem. The grief experienced by the “people of a hundred million” can no longer be exaggerated. Afraid of going crazy, the heroine internally distances herself from events and looks at herself from the outside:

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

The epithets in the poem intensify the disgust of terror against one’s own people, evoke a feeling of horror, and describe the desolation in the country: “deadly melancholy,” “guiltless” Rus', “heavy” steps of soldiers, “petrified” suffering. The author creates the image of a “blind red” wall of power, against which the people fight in the hope of justice:

And I pray not for myself alone, but for everyone who stood there with me, both in the fierce hunger and in the July heat, under the blinding red wall.

In the poem, Akhmatova uses religious symbolism, for example, the image of the mother of Christ, the Virgin Mary, who also suffered for her son.

Having experienced such grief, Akhmatova cannot remain silent, she testifies. The poem creates the effect of polyphony, as if different people are speaking, and the lines hang in the air:

This woman is sick, This woman is alone, Her husband is in the grave, her son is in prison, Pray for me.

The poem contains many metaphors that amaze with skill and strength of feelings and will never be forgotten: “mountains bend before this grief,” “death stars stood above us,” “...and burn through the New Year’s ice with your hot tears.” The poem also contains such artistic means as allegories, symbols, and personifications. All of them create a tragic requiem for all those innocently killed, slandered, and disappeared forever in the “black convict holes.”

The poem "Requiem" ends with a solemn poem in which one feels the joy of victory over the horror and numbness of many years, the preservation of memory and common sense. The creation of such a poem is a real civic feat of Akhmatova.

It was written from 1935 to 1940. Until the 1950s, the poet kept her text in her memory, not daring to write it down on paper, so as not to be subject to reprisals. Only after Stalin's death was the poem written down, but the truth expressed in it was still dangerous, and publication was impossible. But “manuscripts don’t burn,” eternal art remains alive. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” which contained the pain of the hearts of thousands of Russian women, was published in 1988, when its author had been dead for 22 years.
Anna, together with her people, went through a terrible time of “universal muteness,” when the torment overwhelms, becomes unbearable, and it is impossible to scream. Her fate is tragic. Akhmatova’s husband, the remarkable Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot in 1921 on false charges of conspiracy against the new Bolshevik government. Talent and intelligence were persecuted by Stalin's executioners until the tenth generation. Usually, after the arrested person, his wife, ex-wife, their children and relatives went to the camps. The son of Gumilyov and Akhmatova, Lev, was arrested in the thirties and again on false charges. Akhmatova’s husband, N.N. Punin, was also arrested. Arbitrariness reigned in the country, an atmosphere of unbearable fear was intensified, and everyone expected arrest.
The title “Requiem,” which means “funeral mass,” very accurately corresponds to the feelings of the poetess, who recalled: “During the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, I spent seventeen months in prison lines in Leningrad.”

I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were.

In the poem, Akhmatova speaks on behalf of millions of people who did not understand what their relatives were accused of and tried to get at least some information from the authorities about their fate. The “word of stone” was the mother’s death sentence for her son, which was later replaced by imprisonment in the camps. Akhmatova waited for her son for twenty years. But even this was not enough for the authorities. In 1946, the persecution of writers began. Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were sharply criticized, and their works were no longer published. The strong-willed poetess withstood all the blows of fate.
The poem “Requiem” expresses the immense grief of the people, the defenselessness of people, and the loss of moral guidelines:

Everything's messed up forever
And I can't make it out
Now, who is the beast, who is the man,
And how long will it be to wait for execution?

Akhmatova, like no one else, was able to express the extreme mental state of a person in succinct, short lines of her poems. The situation of hopelessness, doom and absurdity of what is happening makes the author doubt his own mental health:

Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And he drinks fiery wine,
And beckons to the black valley.
And I realized that he
I must concede victory
Listening to your own
Already like someone else's delirium.

There is no hyperbole in Akhmatova's poem. The grief experienced by the “people of a hundred million” can no longer be exaggerated. Afraid of going crazy, the heroine internally distances herself from events and looks at herself from the outside:

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

The epithets in the poem intensify the disgust of terror against one’s own people, evoke a feeling of horror, and describe the desolation in the country: “deadly melancholy,” “guiltless” Rus', “heavy” steps of soldiers, “petrified” suffering. The author creates the image of a “blind red” wall of power, against which the people fight in the hope of justice:

And I’m not praying for myself alone,
And about everyone who stood there with me
And in severe hunger, and in the July heat
Under the blinding red wall.

In the poem, Akhmatova uses religious symbolism, for example, the image of the mother of Christ, the Virgin Mary, who also suffered for her son.
Having experienced such grief, Akhmatova cannot remain silent, she testifies. The poem creates the effect of polyphony, as if different people are speaking, and the lines hang in the air:

This woman is sick
This woman is alone
Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.

The poem contains many metaphors that amaze with the skill and strength of feelings and will never be forgotten: “mountains bend before this grief,” “the death stars stood above us,” “...and burn through the New Year’s ice with your hot tears.” The poem also contains such artistic means as allegories, symbols, and personifications. All of them create a tragic requiem for all those innocently killed, slandered, and disappeared forever in the “black convict holes.”
The poem “Requiem” ends with a solemn poem, in which one feels the joy of victory over the horror and numbness of many years, the preservation of memory and common sense. The creation of such a poem is a real civic feat of Akhmatova.

Anna Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” poignant in its degree of tragedy, was written from 1935 to 1940. Until the 1950s, the poet kept her text in her memory, not daring to write it down on paper, so as not to be subject to reprisals. Only after Stalin's death was the poem written down, but the truth expressed in it was still dangerous, and publication was impossible. But “manuscripts don’t burn,” eternal art remains alive. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem,” which contained the pain of the hearts of thousands of Russian women, was published in 1988, when its author had been dead for 22 years.

Anna Akhmatova, together with her people, went through a terrible time of “universal muteness,” when the torment overwhelms, becomes unbearable, and it is impossible to scream. Her fate is tragic. Akhmatova’s husband, the remarkable Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot in 1921 on false charges of conspiracy against the new Bolshevik government. Talent and intelligence were persecuted by Stalin's executioners until the tenth generation. Usually, after the arrested person, his wife, ex-wife, their children and relatives went to the camps. The son of Gumilyov and Akhmatova, Lev, was arrested in the thirties and again on false charges. Akhmatova’s husband, N.N. Punin, was also arrested. Arbitrariness reigned in the country, an atmosphere of unbearable fear was intensified, and everyone expected arrest.

The title “Requiem,” which means “funeral mass,” very accurately corresponds to the feelings of the poetess, who recalled: “During the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, I spent seventeen months in prison lines in Leningrad.”

I was then with my people,

Where my people, unfortunately, were.

In the poem, Akhmatova speaks on behalf of millions of people who did not understand what their relatives were accused of and tried to get at least some information from the authorities about their fate. The “word of stone” was the mother’s death sentence for her son, which was later replaced by imprisonment in the camps. Akhmatova waited for her son for twenty years. But even this was not enough for the authorities. In 1946, the persecution of writers began. Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were sharply criticized, and their works were no longer published. The strong-willed poetess withstood all the blows of fate.

The poem “Requiem” expresses the immense grief of the people, the defenselessness of people, and the loss of moral guidelines:

Everything's messed up forever

And I can't make it out

Now, who is the beast, who is the man,

And how long will it be to wait for execution?

Akhmatova, like no one else, was able to express the extreme mental state of a person in succinct, short lines of her poems. The situation of hopelessness, doom and absurdity of what is happening makes the author doubt his own mental health:

Madness is already on the wing

Half of my soul was covered,

And he drinks fiery wine,

And beckons to the black valley.

And I realized that he

I must concede victory

Listening to your own

Already like someone else's delirium.

There is no hyperbole in Akhmatova's poem. The grief experienced by the “people of a hundred million” can no longer be exaggerated. Afraid of going crazy, the heroine internally distances herself from events and looks at herself from the outside:

No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering.

I couldn't do that, but what happened

Let the black cloth cover

And let the lanterns be taken away...

The epithets in the poem intensify the disgust of terror against one’s own people, evoke a feeling of horror, and describe the desolation in the country: “deadly melancholy,” “guiltless” Rus', “heavy” steps of soldiers, “petrified” suffering. The author creates the image of a “blind red” wall of power, against which the people fight in the hope of justice:

And I’m not praying for myself alone,

And about everyone who stood there with me

And in severe hunger, and in the July heat

Under the blinding red wall.

In the poem, Akhmatova uses religious symbolism, for example, the image of the mother of Christ, the Virgin Mary, who also suffered for her son.

Having experienced such grief, Akhmatova cannot remain silent, she testifies. The poem creates the effect of polyphony, as if different people are speaking, and the lines hang in the air:

This woman is sick

This woman is alone

Husband in the grave, son in prison,

Pray for me.

The poem contains many metaphors that amaze with the skill and strength of feelings and will never be forgotten: “mountains bend before this grief,” “the death stars stood above us,” “...and burn through the New Year’s ice with your hot tears.” The poem also contains such artistic means as allegories, symbols, and personifications. All of them create a tragic requiem for all those innocently killed, slandered, and disappeared forever in the “black convict holes.”

The poem “Requiem” ends with a solemn poem, in which one feels the joy of victory over the horror and numbness of many years, the preservation of memory and common sense. The creation of such a poem is a real civic feat of Akhmatova.

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem” is based on the poetess’s personal tragedy. The result of the years of Stalinist repressions experienced was a work the publication of which was out of the question for a long time. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the analysis of the poem, which will be useful for 11th grade students in preparation for a lesson on literature and the Unified State Exam.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1938-1940.

History of creation– The history of writing the poem is closely connected with the personal tragedy of the poetess, whose husband was shot during the reaction period and whose son was arrested. The work is dedicated to all those who died during the period of repression only because they dared to think differently than what was required by the current government.

Subject– In her work, the poetess revealed many topics, and they are all of equal importance. This is the theme of folk memory, grief, maternal suffering, love and homeland.

Composition– The first two chapters of the poem form a prologue, and the last two form an epilogue. The 4 verses following the prologue are a summary of maternal grief, chapters 5 and 6 are the culmination of the poem, the highest point of the heroine’s suffering. Subsequent chapters focus on the topic of memory.

Genre- Poem.

Direction- Acmeism.

History of creation

The first sketches of "Requiem" date back to 1934. Initially, Anna Andreevna planned to write a cycle of poems dedicated to the reactionary period. One of the first victims of totalitarian tyranny were the closest and dearest people of the poetess - her husband, Nikolai Gumilev, and their common son, Lev Gumilev. The husband was shot as a counter-revolutionary, and the son was arrested only because he bore his father’s “shameful” surname.

Realizing that the reigning regime was merciless in its bloodthirstiness, Akhmatova after a while changed her original plan and began writing a full-fledged poem. The most fruitful period of work was 1938-1940. The poem was completed, but for obvious reasons was not published. Moreover, Akhmatova immediately burned the manuscripts of “Requiem” after reading them to her closest people, whom she trusted infinitely.

In the 60s, during the Thaw period, Requiem began to gradually spread among the reading public thanks to samizdat. In 1963, one of the copies of the poem went abroad, where it was first published in Munich.

The full version of “Requiem” was officially approved for publication only in 1987, with the beginning of Perestroika in the country. Subsequently, Akhmatova’s work was included in the compulsory school curriculum.

The meaning of the poem's title is quite deep: requiem is a religious term meaning the holding of a funeral church service for a deceased person. Akhmatova dedicated her work to all prisoners - victims of the regime, who were destined for death by the ruling power. This is the heartbreaking cry of all mothers, wives and daughters who see off their loved ones on the chopping block.

Subject

Theme of national suffering is revealed by the poetess through the prism of her own, personal tragedy. At the same time, she draws parallels with mothers from different historical eras, who sent their innocent sons to death in the same way. Hundreds of thousands of women literally lost their minds in anticipation of a terrible sentence that would forever separate them from a loved one, and this pain is timeless.

In the poem, Akhmatova experiences not only personal grief, she is heartbroken for her patronymic, which is forced to become an arena for the senselessly cruel executions of her children. She identifies her homeland with a woman forced to look helplessly at the torment of her child.

The poem perfectly reveals theme of boundless love, stronger than which there is nothing in the world. Women are not able to help their loved ones who find themselves in trouble, but their love and loyalty can warm them during the most difficult trials in life.

The main idea of ​​the work- memory. The author calls to never forget about the people's grief, and to remember those innocent people who became victims of the merciless machine of power. This is part of history, and erasing it from the memory of future generations is a crime. Remembering and never allowing a repetition of a terrible tragedy is what Akhmatova teaches in her poem.

Composition

Carrying out an analysis of the work in the poem “Requiem”, it should be noted the peculiarity of its compositional structure, indicating Akhmatova’s original intention - to create a cycle of completed individual poems. As a result, it seems that the poem was written spontaneously, in fits and starts, in separate parts.

• The first two chapters (“Dedication” and “Introduction”) are the prologue of the poem. Thanks to them, the reader learns what the place and time of the work is.
• The next 4 verses present historical parallels between the bitter fate of mothers of all times. The lyrical heroine recalls her youth, which did not know any problems, the arrest of her son, and the days of unbearable loneliness that followed.
• In chapters 5 and 6, the mother is tormented by the premonition of her son’s death, she is frightened by the unknown. This is the culmination of the poem, the apotheosis of the heroine’s suffering.
• Chapter 7 - a terrible sentence, a message about the exile of his son to Siberia.
• Verse 8 - the mother, in a fit of despair, calls for death, she wants to sacrifice herself, but protect her child from the evil fate.
• Chapter 9 is a prison meeting, forever imprinted in the memory of the unfortunate woman.
• Chapter 10 - in just a few lines, the poetess draws a deep parallel between the suffering of her son and the torment of the innocent crucified Christ, and compares her maternal pain with the anguish of the Mother of God.
• In the epilogue, Akhmatova calls on people not to forget the suffering that the people endured during those terrible years of repression.

Genre

The literary genre of the work is poem. However, “Requiem” also has the characteristic features of an epic: the presence of a prologue, the main part of an epilogue, a description of several historical eras and drawing parallels between them.