Sarah Ward-I Taught Myself How To Live Simply

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and to pray to God,
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the raving
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops.
I compose happy verses
about life's decay, decay and beauty.
I come back, the fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear.

- I Taught Myself How to Live Simply, Anna Akhmatova

I had never read this poem before, but once I read it, I fell in love with it. This is the life that I aspire to have when I leave school. The author, Anna Akhmatova, once led an exravagant lifestyle. She bought whatever she wanted and everything was given to her. All of those things changed when she became pregnant and had another life to put before herself. With the birth of the baby, she learned to change her lifestyle and live a simple and content life. I did not understand this poem at first, but was able to piece together the poem's meaning through a little bit of research. The last few lines: "Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof occasionally breaks the silence", confused me. The meaning behind these lines is once she puts her first child down for bed at night, she is alone. Left to her thoughts and prayers. The only thing that breaks the silence is the stork that lands on the roof, which symbolizes the conception of another child.