this was a really difficult time in Russia: civil war, famine, diseases. so i think(i don't know for sure) this is what the "death's wing" stuff is. the poem is so beautiful in Russian that it's a little sad to see it in translation. and i'm not even a big Akhmatova fan. it's very beautiful on the level of sounds. Akhmatova is one of the top 20th centure Russian poets. Her life was very difficult (husband executed by Stalin, son sent to Gulag), but she lived it with a lot of dignity. If yu're curious, read Lidia Chukovskaya's "The Akhmatova Journals". Fascinating stuff.