Question

"Lot's Wife"

by Anna Akhmatova
translated by Max Hayward and Stanley Kunitz

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back

at the red towers of your native Sodom,
the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,
at the empty windows set in the tall house
where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."

A single glance: a sudden dart of pain
stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .
Her body flaked into transparent salt,
and her swift legs rooted to the ground.


According to the lecture, what are the multiple approaches that you can use to interpret this one poem? Explain which approaches would tell us more about the poem itself and which approaches would have a broader focus.

Answer 1

The poem is a free retelling of the biblical plot: the Angel brought the righteous lot with his family from the doomed Sodom. Lot's wife violated the strict mandate not to turn around and was turned into a salt pillar. So this poem you can interpret as both a mythical and ethical approach.

Other approaches to interpreting this poem include biographical, psychological, historical and sociological. The languor on the native edge is determined not by its special qualities-the beauty of nature, the singularity or historical significance of the accuracy, warmth of people-everything can be accurate to the contrary, for Akhmatova is important not this: thanks to strong emotional memory every detail of the native places causes her memories of the events or sensations of the past – in other words, is emotionally saturated.

Answer 2

The approaches you can use to interpret this poem "Lot's Wife" are: Biographical, psychological, sociological, formal, historical, ethical or mythical. The approach that would tell us more about the poem itself would be the Formal approach; meanwhile the rest of the aproaches would have a broader focus.