Anna Akhmativa "Dark Dream 2"

The first verse, or stanza, is a few lines about how her relationship starts out. In her view point, Anna starts out the poem in the kind of mind set that the guy probably established for her: When I say jump you ask how high.

                 “You are always new and mysterious,

I am obedient to you each day.

But your love, my severe one,

Is a trial by steel and flame.”

In this first stanza I imagined a guy, maybe her husband, being someone who controls her. She had to be alert and obedient to please him, kind of how people view dogs...they have to be obedient. The lines, “ But your love, my severe one, is a trial by steel and flame.” When I read those lines, it made me feel like maybe she was getting close to having enough of her husband and how he treats her. She has had enough of his control over her and having to feel perfect just to please him, or was trying to say that his love is trying, melting her and ultimately destroying her. She is crumbling under him.

The second stanza was at the point in the abusive or dominating relationship where she has the life sucked out of her. She has no interests and she is not allowed to enjoy the things she enjoyed before she met him. All that matters now is him.

                  “I’m forbidden to sing or smile,

Forbidden long ago to pray.

But nothing matters now to me

Except not to part from you!”

He forbids her to sing or smile, so he is controlling her at this point. She is not allowed to pray and she feels like nothing now matters to her except not to part from him. She has this unhealthy relationship with her husband who she doesn't know how to leave, and can't leave. She is used to his ways and even though it may hurt her, she is addicted to him and how he acts. So, parting from his would be like a druggie giving up their drugs, it would be a struggle even though her husband, like the drugs, are not good for anyone.

The last stanza, she is completely emotionless and thoughtless. She talks about how how she no longer is happy or sad, she is in a void, no longer accepting happiness (heaven) or sadness (hell.) She talks about how she no longer sings but yet she is still alive, she doesn't enjoy the things that used to make her feel alive. The last two lines she says that he prevented or forbid the entrance or movement of her soul from hell or paradise.

                       “So, exiled from heaven and earth,

I no longer sing, yet am still alive,

As if you barred my errant soul,

From both hell and paradise.”

Basically, he took the life out of her to the point that she doesn't mind heaven or hell. She lost all interests, she lost the feeling of how to feel alive or to be happy.