SOURCE: Katz, Boris. “To What Extent is Requiem a Requiem? Unheard Female Voices in Anna Akhmatova's Requiem.” The Russian Review 57, no. 2 (April 1998): 253-63.

In the following essay, Katz traces musical, literary, and religious subtexts in Akhmatova's Requiem.

Some cry up Haydn, some Mozart, Just as the whim bites. For my part, I do not care a farthing candle For either of them, nor for Handel. Cannot a man live free and easy, Without admiring Pergolesi? 

—Charles Lamb, “Free Thoughts on Several Eminent Composers” (1830).

It is obvious that not every poet would share Charles Lamb's attitude toward music in general, and toward “several eminent composers” in particular. Anna Akhmatova certainly would not. There is no need to cite a great deal of evidence; it is sufficient to recall one passage from the memoirs of Anatoly Naiman, a Russian poet who was close to Akhmatova in her later years. The...