10 best poems by Bella Akhmadulina

Review of the best according to the editorial board. On the selection criteria. This material is subjective, does not constitute advertising and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.

Bella Akhatovna Akhmadulina is one of the most famous poetesses of the second half of the 20th century. Her poems, imbued with incredible lyricism and sensuality, are known, perhaps, to every inhabitant of the post-Soviet space. Bella Akhmadulina's work is both modern and eternal, as it intertwines actual images with classical motives.

Her work is distinguished by an unusual melody. The rhymes used in poetry are not trivial, often unexpected and surprising. The poet uses all the richness of the Russian language, practically without resorting to 'Newspeak' or Anglicisms. But, despite the sensuality and lyricism, the image of a strong woman is often glorified in her works.

For those who want to admire one of the amazing representatives of Russian poetry and literature, we have compiled a rating of the 10 most famous and best poems by Akhmadulina. Search engine data was used to place the works in the top.

Poems by Akhmadulina – the best and most famous works of the poetess

Nomination a place Composition rating
Review of the best poems by Bella Akhmadulina 10 'Not a word about love …' 4.1
9 'Fall' 4.2
8 'Night' 4.3
7 'August' 4.4
6 'Candle' 4.5
5 'The Tale of the Rain' 4.6
4 'Parting' 4.7
3 'What bliss that the snow is shining …' 4.8
2 'Along my street which year …' 4.9
1 'Oh my shy hero …' 5.0

10th place: 'Not a word about love …'

Rating: 4.1

portrait of bella akhmadulina

Our rating opens with one of the most lyrical and metaphorical works of Bella Akhatovna. In this poem, published in 1973 – at the peak of her creativity and popularity – the poetess skillfully plays a variety of images. Here, the author-heroine also appears as a strong woman who, even with some sadness, 'criticizes' her colleagues in the shop, praising feelings, romance and love.

'Not a word about love …' due to its metaphoric nature and fullness of various images, it may seem quite difficult to perceive. After all, it has both everyday and sensual elements. The “Universal Polynya” is found in one stanza with the mention of the monument to Gogol, and the Arbat, currently a tourist and commercial one, appears as a “desert of white dunes”. The author deliberately uses such images to show the state of mind of the heroine – a person who 'strangled' his ability to love for the sake of survival in the modern world, but at the same time retained a subtle sensuality.

9th place: 'Autumn'

Rating: 4.2

Autumn has always been a source of inspiration for Russian poets. And Bella Akhmadulina also could not help but share her feelings that she had while contemplating the natural wilting of nature.

But in the poem 'Autumn' Bella Akhatovna demonstrates an extremely unusual approach to describing feelings and emotions that arise at a time when the leaves on the trees first turn yellow and then crumble. She does not admire sorrow, does not sing about it. On the contrary, in the work she says that the fruits of mental labor that give birth in autumn are empty. And although they are born in painstaking efforts, the source for them is only a trifle.

Separately, the poetess mildly criticizes attempts to show wisdom at this time of year. She calls them 'laziness'. And, they say, a person who refuses creativity and work in the autumn for the sake of contemplating the wilting of nature is not at all wise. He's just lazy. And these two states are very similar to each other.

8th place: 'Night'

Rating: 4.3

Written in 1965, a poem dedicated to Andrei Smirnov, 'Night' tells about the difficulties of writing poetry. In it, the poetess talks about how difficult it is to create, and at the same time uses some of the most vivid images, epithets and metaphors.

Indeed, 'Night' differs from other works of Bella Akhmadulina by its amazing imagery. When reading, you stumble in the first line, the one where the dawn is getting dark. This image, as unconventional as it is obvious, plunges into the amazing, viscous, furious atmosphere of the poem.

As in her other works, in the 'Night' the poetess questions the usual concepts and states. Say, that intellectual upsurge that we often experience at night is not at all a 'sharpness of mind'. This is a combination of midnight excitement with liters of coffee drunk. And therefore, at night we are cheerful and active, but still not capable of creativity.

7th place: 'August'

Rating: 4.4

Written in 1958, the poem 'August' is the clearest example of Akhmadulina's early lyrical prose. In it, the author-heroine does not yet appear as that strong woman hardened in everyday and life troubles, as she can be seen in later works.

But already in this work you can see how the poetess handles rhymes and images. It takes real phenomena as a basis (in particular, the Perseid meteor shower, which is most vividly observed just in August at southern latitudes) and supplements them with a lyrical context. The rhymes here are also unexpected, rather surprising and non-standard, but at the same time do not violate the melody of the text.

And even though the main mood of the poem is a little unusual for Bella Akhmadulina's work – lyrical regrets about lost love – it still occupies an important place in the author's bibliography.

6th place: 'Candle'

Rating: 4.5

In the work of the poetess there is practically a subgenre of dedication poems. In them Bella speaks metaphorically about the difficulties of creativity. This leitmotif was shown both in the 'Night' dedicated to Andrey Smirnov and in the 'Candle', whose addressee is Gennady Shpalikov.

In “Candle” the poetess once again combines simple, understandable to any person symbols with deep metaphor. As critics said, Bella Akhmadulina knows how to see additional meanings in every object around us. And 'Candle' is the clearest confirmation of this idea.

The verse does not show the difficulty of creativity as clearly as in, for example, 'Night'. On the contrary, 'Candle' shows how the author can easily extract meanings from any object, reflecting the connection between our environment and the emotional state.

But the language of the work is of particular interest. While most of the poem is built from commonly used words, the poet occasionally uses unusual terms. They practically serve as 'anchors' that you 'cling to' as you read. But at the same time they do not look alien – on the contrary, they easily fit into the overall melody of the piece.

5th place: 'The Tale of the Rain'

Rating: 4.6

'The Tale of the Rain' is one of the most ambitious works by Akhmadulina. A 12-part poem, which is complemented by a children's choir authored by Evgeny Yevtushenko, the poet's first wife.

'The Tale of the Rain' is an amazing work from a linguistic point of view. Even if we consider that the poetess is very free, but at the same time respectfully treats Russian literature. Here the syllable is especially archaic and pompous, unusual for other works, and the allegories are incredibly bizarre.

This linguistic complexity helped to lull the vigilance of the censors, and the work, which, in essence, criticized Soviet anti-religiousness, “went to the people.” And not only by word of mouth, in any case. 'The Tale of the Rain' was published in magazines and in collections, even a gramophone record, on which the author reads this work, was released.

In 'The Tale of the Rain', the poetess compares the lack of spirituality of society with a drought that deserts the land. She tells how she abides in the Holy Spirit, and what loneliness she experiences in an atheistic society. But all of this is conveyed through complex allegories and multi-level metaphors, so it can be difficult to determine the true message of the work on the first reading. And to some, the 'Tale of the Rain' will seem like a sweet and funny story with a fantastic plot.

4th place: 'Farewell'

Rating: 4.7

The poem 'Farewell', written in 1960, is best known for the first line, which sounds like 'And finally, I will say …'. Already this phrase, which has a pronounced emotional color characteristic of Bella Akhmadulina's work, adjusts in a certain way.

Like other works by early Akhmadulina, 'Farewell' is characterized by allegorical and metaphorical, as well as deliberately lofty language. In addition, the poetess in it uses rhythmic techniques to demonstrate the inner state of the author-character. So, in the third quatrain, the melodic line and the poetic meter break sharply to show the 'soullessness' and emptiness of the heroine.

In addition, Farewell also demonstrates how well the poetess handled the sound of the Russian language. The first quatrains are not only melodious. They are imbued with assonance, thanks to which they become especially melodic – again, abruptly ending at the third. But the poem does not end with it, showing that even after the break, loss, devastation, the poetess is still alive, still able to create.

3rd place: 'What bliss that the snow glistens …'

Rating: 4.8

'What bliss that the snow is shining …' is one of the sweetest works by Bella Akhmadulina. Despite the fact that it is permeated with light, light sadness – like other poems by this famous poetess – it is mainly dedicated to the holiday. New year.

In the verse, the poetess notes the solemnity of the expectation of the celebration. That subtle, but almost magical joy, which is filled with a premonition of New Year's fun. And, with her characteristic manner, the poetess sees deep symbolism in everyday things. She describes the festive mood through the objects of the scenery, noting the 'tenderness and spruce that have descended' and the serpentine with tinsel rising above the routine and despondency.

Indeed, New Year's Eve is an amazing period when you can put aside your everyday despondency and just start admiring the world around you, decorate a fir tree and expect a miracle.

2nd place: 'On my street which year …'

Rating: 4.9

'Along my street which year …' is one of the first poems by Bella Akhmadulina. It vividly reflects the period of early creativity, when the poetess's works were filled with complex, multifaceted and multilevel metaphors. Akhmadulina wrote this verse when she was only 22 years old.

The poem about the transience of time, in which every line seems to be truly suffering, became especially popular 20 years after its publication. It was then that M. Tariverdiev turned it into a romance that sounded in the cult film 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!'.

Surprisingly, this poem exists in several versions at once. In the 'folk performance' it lost several stanzas. In the song from 'The Irony of Fate …' it is also incomplete. In addition, Bella Akhmadulina herself, performing it live, periodically changed lines and words. Therefore, it is difficult to say which version of the work is 'true'. In addition, there is even a 'hot-political' version of the poem, in which the word 'fear' is replaced by 'power'.

1st place: 'Oh, my shy hero …'

Rating: 5.0

portrait of bella akhmadulina 2

Bella Akhmadulina's most famous and perhaps most representative poem, “Oh, my shy hero …” became most popular after it sounded in the beloved movie “Office Romance”. In the tape, it was read by Svetlana Nemolyaeva, an actress who performed one of the roles. Her gentle, but at the same time slightly torn and hoarse voice has been associated with this work ever since.

This poem was first published in 1961. It can be assumed that it describes a break with the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, which occurred two years earlier, but there is no direct evidence of this. Like many other works of the poetess, it describes a strong author-heroine who survived and is going through shocks.

Having already become a public person and having experienced many difficult events, the poetess represents the author-character in the role of an actress, filling the poem with additional meanings. She defines the general public as herds hungry for entertainment – and this is not surprising. As you know, after breaking up with Yevtushenko, the poetess was forced to have an abortion, and this was actively condemned by Soviet society. Although, in fact, who could care what?


Attention! This rating is subjective and does not constitute an advertisement and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.

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