Twenty-First. Night. Monday

Anna Akhmatova 1889 (Odessa) – 1966 (Moscow)



Twenty-first. Night. Monday.
Silhouette of the capitol in darkness.
Some good-for-nothing -- who knows why--
made up the tale that love exists on earth.

People believe it, maybe from laziness
or boredom, and live accordingly:
they wait eagerly for meetings, fear parting,
and when they sing, they sing about love.

But the secret reveals itself to some,
and on them silence settles down...
I found this out by accident
and now it seems I'm sick all the time.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

24 sec read
206

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXX BAXX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 454
Words 80
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 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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    "Twenty-First. Night. Monday" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3044/twenty-first.-night.-monday>.

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