Anna Akhmatova was the preeminent Russian poet of the first half of the 20th Century. She was censored and her works banned from publication, through a party resolution by the Russian government, twice, from 1925-1939 and 1946-1956. Short-listed for the Novel Prize, she may be the best poet you've never heard of.
I recently read a selection of her prose, from letters and diaries primarily, in "My Half Century" and have shared a selection of quotes from that book.
Here is one final quote. A beautiful observation, on the death of a young poet, Nadezhda Lvova.
It is painful when a poet dies, but when a young poet dies it is even more painful. You read the few lines that he has left behind with agonizing concentration, greedily scouring the still immature voice and the youthfully spare imagery for the secret of death, which is hidden from us, the living.
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