Editing Anna Akhmatova (section)

==Silver Age==
[[File:Anna Akhmatova 1913-1914 by Savely Sorin.jpg|thumb|Anna Akhmatova in 1914]]
In 1912, the Guild of Poets published Akhmatova's book of verse ''Evening'' (''Vecher'') – the first of five in nine years.<ref group='Notes' name='f'/> The small edition of 500 copies quickly sold out and she received around a dozen positive notices in the literary press.<ref name="Wells6"/> She exercised a strong selectivity for the pieces – including only 35 of the 200 poems she had written by the end of 1911.<ref name="Wells6">Wells (1996) p. 6</ref> (She noted that ''Song of the Last Meeting'', dated 29 September 1911, was her 200th poem.) The book secured her reputation as a new and striking young writer,<ref name="Harrington15">Harrington (2006) p. 15</ref> the poems "Grey-eyed king", "In the Forest", "Over the Water", and "I don't need my legs anymore" making her famous. She later wrote, "These naïve poems by a frivolous girl for some reason were reprinted thirteen times [...] And they came out in several translations. The girl herself (as far as I recall) did not foresee such a fate for them and used to hide the issues of the journals in which they were first published under the sofa cushions".<ref Name="Martin4">Martin (2007) p. 4</ref>

Akhmatova's second collection, ''The Rosary'' (or ''Beads'' – ''Chetki'') appeared in March 1914 and firmly established her as one of the most popular and sought after poets of the day.<ref name="Wells6"/><ref group='Notes' name='g'/> Thousands of women composed poems "in honour of Akhmatova", mimicking her style and prompting Akhmatova to exclaim: "I taught our women how to speak, but don't know how to make them silent".<ref name="Harrington15"/> Her aristocratic manners and artistic integrity won her the titles "Queen of the Neva" and "[[Silver Age of Russian Poetry|Soul of the Silver Age]]", as the period came to be known in the history of Russian poetry. In ''Poem Without a Hero'', the longest and one of the best known of her works, written many decades later, she would recall this as a blessed time of her life.<ref group="Notes" name="a">''Poem Without a Hero'' (''Poema bez geroya'') was inspired by [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s ''[[Eugene Onegin]]''</ref>

Akhmatova became close friends with [[Boris Pasternak]] (who, though married, proposed to her many times) and rumours began to circulate that she was having an affair with influential lyrical poet [[Alexander Blok]].<ref name="Wells10">Wells (1996) p.10</ref><ref name="Poets">[http://www.poets.org/aakhm Profile of Anna Akhmatova, Academy of American Poets]</ref> In July 1914, Akhmatova wrote "Frightening times are approaching / Soon fresh graves will cover the land"; on 1 August, Germany declared war on Russia, marking the start of "the dark storm" of [[First World War|world war]], civil war, revolution and totalitarian repression for Russia.<ref Name="Martin5">Martin (2007) p. 5</ref> [[Silver Age of Russian Poetry|The Silver Age]] came to a close.

[[File:Olga kardovskaya portret ahmatovoy 1914 szh 16.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Anna Akhmatova by [[Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya]], 1914]]
Akhmatova had a relationship with the mosaic artist and poet [[Boris Anrep]]; many of her poems in the period are about him, and he in turn created mosaics in which she is featured.<ref group='Notes' name='b'>See [[Boris Anrep|here for mosaic images]] Mosaics located in the National Gallery in London. In the Cathedral of [[Christ the King Mullingar]], Anrep's mosaic of Saint Anne is spelt Anna – the saint's image bears a close resemblance to Akhmatova in her mid-20s. He also depicted Akhmatova in a religious mosaic entitled ''Compassion''.</ref><ref group='Notes' name='i'>For commentary on the relationship between Akhmatova and Anrep, see Wendy Rosslyn, "A propos of Anna Akhmatova: Boris Vasilyevich Anrep (1883–1969)", ''New Zealand Slavonic Journal'' 1 (1980): pp. 25–34.</ref><ref>[http://www.rte.ie/radio1/sundaymiscellany/1202615.html In “{{sic|Ana Achma|tova|nolink=y}} and Mullingar Connection”. Broadcast on RTÉ, 4 May 2008], the poet Joseph Woods recounts the story of the mosaics. Relevant section begins at timestamp 40'43".</ref> She selected poems for her third collection, ''Belaya Staya'' (''White Flock''), in 1917,<ref group='Notes' name='h'/> a volume which poet and critic [[Joseph Brodsky]] later described as writing of personal lyricism tinged with the "note of controlled terror".<ref Name="Martin5"/> She later came to be memorialised by his description of her as "the keening muse".<ref Name="Grief"/> Essayist John Bayley describes her writing at this time as "grim, spare and laconic".<ref Name="Bayley">Bayley, John (1984) ''Selected Essays''  Cambridge University Press. "The greatness of Akhmatova: Requiem and Poem Without a Hero translated by DM Thomas". pp. 140–142; {{ISBN|0-521-27845-7}}</ref>

In February 1917, the revolution started in Saint Petersburg (then named Petrograd); soldiers fired on marching protestors, and others mutinied. They looked to a past in which the future was "rotting". In a city without electricity or sewage service, with little water or food, they faced starvation and sickness. Akhmatova's friends died around her and others left in droves for safer havens in Europe and America, including Anrep, who escaped to England.<ref Name="Martin6"/> She had the option to leave, and considered it for a time, but chose to stay and was proud of her decision to remain:<ref Name="Bayley"/>

{{Blockquote
| text = <poem>You are a traitor, and for a green island,	
Have betrayed, yes, betrayed your native	
Land, 	
Abandoned all our songs and sacred	
Icons,	
And the pine tree over a quiet lake.</poem>
| title = "Green Island"
| source = trans. Jane Kenyon<ref>Kenyon, Jane (Tans, ed.) (1985) From ''Green Island'' published in ''Twenty Poems of Anna Akhmatova''. Eighties Press and Ally Press {{ISBN|0-915408-30-9}}</ref>}}

Akhmatova wrote of her own temptation to leave:
	 	
{{Blockquote
| text = <poem>A voice came to me. It called out comfortingly.	
It said, "Come here,	
Leave your deaf and sinful land,	
Leave Russia forever,	 	
I will wash the blood from your hands,	
Root out the black shame from your heart,		
[...] calmly and indifferently,	
I covered my ears with my hands,	
So that my sorrowing spirit 	
Would not be stained by those shameful words.</poem>
| title = "When in suicidal anguish"
| source = trans. Jane Kenyon<ref>From Akhmatova, Anna (1918) ''When in suicidal anguish''. These lines of the poem were not published in Russia until the 1990s. Published in ''Anna Akhmatova: The Stalin Years''; Journal article by Roberta Reeder; ''New England Review'', Vol. 18, 1997</ref>}}

At the height of Akhmatova's fame, in 1918, she divorced her husband and that same year, though many of her friends considered it a mistake, Akhmatova married prominent Assyriologist and poet [[Vladimir Shilejko]].<ref name="Harrington16">Harrington (2006) p.16</ref><ref name="Wells11">Wells (1996) p.11</ref> She later said, "I felt so filthy. I thought it would be like a cleansing, like going to a convent, knowing you are going to lose your freedom."<ref name="Martin6">Martin (2007) p.6</ref> She began affairs with theatre director Mikhail Zimmerman and composer [[Arthur Lourié]], who set many of her poems to music.<ref>Feinstein (2005) p. 83</ref>