One goes in straightforward ways

Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)



One goes in straightforward ways,
One in a circle roams:
Waits for a girl of his gone days,
Or for returning home.

But I do go -- and woe is there --
By a way nor straight, nor broad,
But into never and nowhere,
Like trains -- off the railroad.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

15 sec read
73

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX BXBX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 245
Words 52
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 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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