Lot’s Wife

Lot’s Wife

By Anna Akhmatova

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.

Summary of Lot’s Wife

• Popularity of “Lot’s Wife”: Written by Anna Akhmatova, a Great Russian poet and writer, “Lot’s Wife” is a religious, poetic piece. The poem accounts for the emotional state of an unnamed woman who faces abandonment to avoid God’s wrath. It also shows that despite various opinions about the lady, the speaker sympathizes with her and will never forget her. The poem has earned great fame due to the way it paints the existing biblical story using feminist lenses.
• “Lot’s Wife” As a Representative of Sadness: This sad poem pays tribute to a lady whose disobedience brought her ruination. It begins when the speaker recreates the biblical story about a family. She informs that the family has to flee their disintegrated home to avoid God’s anger. Instead of focusing on the actual incident, the speaker focuses on the woman’s emotional state while leaving her town. The speaker makes the readers imagine the intense grief and acute pain latent in the lady’s bosom. She tries to paint a realistic picture of one moment when the woman struggled to decide whether to look back or keep walking.
  Unfortunately, she disobeyed God and looked back. Upon contradicting God’s commands, the woman turned into salt and was destroyed with the city. The final stanza invites the readers to think whether the action of the lady was reasonable and acceptable or not. Her attachment to her home and the pull of her past life became the main reason for her demise. The poem ends when the speaker says that she still mourns for the woman.
• Major Themes in “Lot’s Wife”: Destruction, disobedience, and tragedy are the major themes of the poem. The speaker retells a religious tragic story with a special focus on a woman’s destruction. Although the world knows this Biblical story, there are various interpretations of the same tragic incident. Her emotions weakened her sense of responsibility and forced her to perform the forbidden action, and lost her life. Although the world has different versions of this story, to the writer, the unnoticed death of the woman carries a lot of meaning. Therefore, in this poem, she pays tribute to the wife who faced punishment for a single mistake. Through this text, the writer reinforces the idea that sometimes we face a situation where we fail to make the right decision.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Lot’s Wife

literary devices bring quality and deep meanings to this seemingly simple poem. Anna Akhmatova has used various literary devices in the poem, whose analysis is as follows.

1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed” and the sound of /o/ in “Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem.”
2. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ in “And the just man trailed God’s shining agent” and the sound of /r/ in “where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed.”.”
3. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;

“Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?”

4. Irony: Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. The last line of the poem is ironic. Anna Akhmatova considers it ironic that a woman faced acute punishment just because she turned back, such as; “who suffered death because she chose to turn.”
5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Anna uses imagery in this poem, such as “A single glance: a sudden dart of pain”, “who suffered death because she chose to turn” and “where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed.”
6. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet used sympathy as an extended metaphor in the poem to make her readers feel the pain of the lady.
7. Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a question that is not asked in order to receive an answer; it is just posed to make the point clear. Anna poses rhetorical questions at the end of the poem to emphasize her point, such as “Who will grieve for this woman?”
8. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols like sympathy, death, destruction, confusion, and disobedience.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Lot’s Wife

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Diction: The poem shows descriptive diction having rhetorical devices, symbolism, and impressive images.
2. Tone: It means the voice of the poet or the poetic text. The tone of this poem is highly tragic and sad.
3. End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. Anna Akhmatova has used end rhyme in this poem, such as; “track/back”, “shed/bed” and “sound/ground.”
4. Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is quatrain.
5. Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows an ABAB rhyme scheme, and this pattern continues until the end.
6. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are four stanzas in this poem, with each comprising four verses.

Quotes to be Used

The following lines are useful to show sympathy to a lady whose tragic death remained unnoticed by the world.

“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.”