Poem Without a Hero

Wendy Rosslyn (Essay Date 1992)

SOURCE: Rosslyn, Wendy. "Don Juan Feminised." In Symbolism and after: Essays on Russian Poetry in Honour of Georgette Donchin, edited by Arnold McMillin, pp. 102-21. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1992.

In the following excerpt, Rosslyn suggests that Akhmatova's Poem without a Hero is a reworking of the Don Juan legend with a female protagonist.

Traditionally the Don Juan legend focuses on a man who claims many female victims of his desires, and who is finally brought to justice by supernatural powers, usually in the form of a statue of a male rival. The legend is not at first sight open to re-telling with a female protagonist, but I wish to suggest that this is indeed what is done by Akhmatova in her Poema bez geroia ('Poem without a Hero', 1940-62).

It has become customary to think of Poema bez...