Scan barcode
italo_carlvino's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
gmrickel's review against another edition
I would have appreciated this collection more had I read it while I was studying Russian history/language/culture. Currently I’m looking for something different in my poetry.
krisbot's review against another edition
5.0
for this book, i moved through it really slowly, picking it up once and a while just to read a few poems. finally i got through the last few i had left and god they're so good. all of them hold so much emotional weight and power it's not like anything i've read before. it's incredible to me how people can write like this and i want to pick up her completed works soon!!!
markcdickson's review against another edition
3.0
There are some great and impactful poems in here.
I just do not think books with very short poems are for me. I struggle to focus and connect with them when there’s so little to connect to.
I just do not think books with very short poems are for me. I struggle to focus and connect with them when there’s so little to connect to.
fdhynst's review against another edition
4.0
the translation, with some exceptions, could be better; didn’t keep the original rhyme scheme
msgtdameron's review against another edition
5.0
I am not a fan of poetry, especially poetry that expresses the feelings of events from the female perspective. But, Akhmatova's poems touched me. Her description of Leningrad during the siege, of being a family member waiting for news of her son and the kinship created in the queue, of life both in pre October Russia, post revolution and during Stalin's terror. All are haunting, hopeful, yet at a lose for the future. An amazing poet with amazing poems whom should be read more in the west than she is.
pdxpiney's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Clear-eyed examination of horrors of war, grief, and exile from a poet who lived and loved an incredible life. Vivid translation and worthwhile foreword.
Why is this age worse than earlier ages?
In a stupor of grief and dread
have we not fingered the foulest wounds
and left them unhealed by our hands?
In the west the falling light still glows,
and the clustered house tops glitter in the sun,
but here death is already chalking the doors with crosses,
and calling the ravens, and the ravens are flying in.
thewildewoolf's review against another edition
5.0
i really like the fact that you can tell this collection is from across her life - it starts out with where most poets start, talking about love and failed affairs etc and then the war hits and it permeates everything with loss and dread and yet this sense of pride and it's just excellent
adt's review against another edition
4.0
English translation with Russian on the other page. The poems are best read after reading background on the poet and her life. The translator notes are copious and even richer after reading about her life. Surprisingly less grim than I expected given the eras covered.