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.

Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?
Yet in my heart I never will deny her,
who suffered death because she chose to turn.

Source: Akhmatova, Anna. "Lot's Wife." Max Hayward and Stanley Kunitz trans. Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.


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

Responses may vary but should include some or all of the following information:

Responses must include the following approaches in their discussion of the poem "Lot's Wife": formal, biographical, psychological, sociological, historical, and ethical or mythical. Formal interpretations will tell us more about the text itself, while the other approaches tend to move further away from the text in the order given above.

Answer 2

You can take an ethical, sociological and biographical approach to this piece. To look at this poem in the best detail possible, my opinion would be to use the biographical approach which tells us of the author's life, motivations for the poem, unconscious desires, and fears. For a broader focus, a sociological approach would be sufficient. We can note the differences and similarities in this poem and others.