Anna Akhmatova's-Lot's Wife

Anna Akhmatova experienced much hardship and distress living during the Cold War in Russia. I can only imagine the fears and the worries that filled Akhmatova’s mind; how strong a faith she must have had to even sleep through the night. It makes sense that Akhmatova would chose to write the poem “Lot’s Wife” because she could relate to living in a place going through much turmoil as Sodom and Gomorrah were in Biblical times. Through Akhmatova's poetry, she found peace, love, and tranquility in her life.

            In the poem, Akhmatova refers to the Biblical story found in the first book of Genesis where the town of Sodom was destroyed. Thankfully, the Lord had mercy on Lot, a just man, and warned him and his family to leave the town as He said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed!” (Gen 19:17).  The cities were destroyed. Lot’s wife did not obey the Lord’s command. The moment she took her final glance into the past, she became a pillar of salt. God, who is loving and merciful, gave Lot and his family time to leave the city.

Akhmatova’s line “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,” particularly struck me. Akhmahtova talks about the struggle of Lot and his wife as they leave their hometown and past life behind. Lot is the “just” man she speaks of. Lot served the Lord and was righteous in God’s sight. Indeed, he was an “agent” or “servant” of the Lord. The “black mountain” that Akhmatova speaks of is not necessarily the landform that one may think of when they hear the word mountain. Rather, perhaps Akhmotova uses the metaphor of the “black mountain” to describe the dark, uphill struggle that Lot’s family had to blindly endure as they left behind all that they knew, to follow the Lord’s command. The “restless voice [that] kept harrying his woman,” refers to the women’s temptation to take one final glance back to the town that the Lord said would soon be put to ruins. However, there is a deeper meaning to this “restless” voice. Perhaps it is a clever metaphor that Akhmatova gives us for the time when we are tempted into doing things that go against God’s will. Lot’s wife “looking back”, and subsequently suffering death is a metaphor for the fact that we should not look back on our past, because God is with us in the present.
Akhmatova wants us to have sympathy on those who look back to the past. Akhmatova will "grieve for this girl [Lot's wife]," for not keeping the Lord's command. Although in the Biblical story, Lot's wife became a pillar of salt for looking back to Sodom, we can have hope today that this will not happen to us. Although we are called to be righteous, and to keep the Lord's commandments, if we make a mistake, we can be forgiven through the mercy and love that is in Christ Jesus!