Prayer
by Anna Akhmatova
Prayer (1915) is a staggering act of patriotic sacrifice, offering up child, companion, and even the gift of song itself if Russia can be saved. "That the storm-cloud which broods over Russia / May be changed to a nimbus ablaze."
Give me comfortless seasons of sickness,
Visitations of wrath and of wrong
On my house; Lord, take child and companion,
And destroy the sweet power of song.
Thus I pray at each matins, each vespers,
After these many wearying days,
That the storm-cloud which broods over Russia
May be changed to a nimbus ablaze.