Vladimir Mayakovsky, "About it": analysis of the work

2024 Author: Angel Austin | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:14

The literature of the twenties is rich and varied, and we are lucky to have such a great legacy. However, the most controversial nugget in the crown of Russian literature is Vladimir Mayakovsky. His works excite, and to this day, readers find more and more new messages between the lines. Mayakovsky's work "About This" has been repeatedly analyzed and is considered the most important and turning point in his work. Let's take a closer look at it.

Mayakovsky…

This man lived only 36 years and it seemed that he could live to a ripe old age and give the world his new extraordinary creations. But not fate. The whole essence of his works was in the reflection of the thoughts and feelings of the poet, and he had them in abundance. To call Mayakovsky's temper ardent and vulnerable would be, to put it mildly, a modest decision. A riot of emotions rushed about inside him and poured out on everything around, no matter what came across on the way. As will be described latercontemporaries, not so grandiose creations were born at Vladimir Vladimirovich when a calm set in in his attitude. By the way, such moments happened very rarely.

Emotions were the driving force and muse of the poet, which he sought daily. So the best work of Mayakovsky "About it" was created. The author looked older than his years because of the strict facial features and his serious expression. Mayakovsky's figure was stately, well-built, and he was about 189 centimeters tall. The voice is unusually booming, deep, to match his nature and appearance. Against the background of all this, verses-reflections are born, emotional, masculinely massive and loud. Many poems were later analyzed, but "About this" by Vladimir Mayakovsky most of all attracts the attention of historians.

Of course, considering all this, it is difficult to imagine any romantic and soft features in the poet. However, Mayakovsky expressed the strongest and most beautiful feeling in the poem “About This” for the first time so succinctly and openly. The world saw the poems not in the form of the usual quatrains, but in the unusual form of a "ladder". They were like a slogan and called upon the reader in every word. Vladimir Vladimirovich liked this option and he created his subsequent works in a unique manner. And he wrote his poem, singing the only love and muse for life.

… and Lilia Brik

This is the woman everyone said different things about, but always said. She could not help but leave an impression, many men lost their heads after meeting her. However, the most importanther love, as Lilia Yurievna admitted, was not Mayakovsky, but her first husband Osip Brik.

They met in their youth, and for seven years he gently and friendly won her favor. In 1912, their wedding took place, Lilya was then 21 years old. Already in 1915, fate first brought her together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, and until his death she was present in his life and was the only main love that inspired the poet. He devoted almost all of his works to her, where Mayakovsky’s “About This” is the main one, a brief analysis of which will be presented below.

About everything, but about her

The poem "About this" was written in two months, from December 28, 1922 to February 28, 1923. This is due to the request of Lilia Brik to put a pause in the relationship and live in different places for a couple of months. For Mayakovsky, these were difficult two months, during which he decided to write down his feelings in a poem. Indeed, during this period he never called his beloved, although he gave her flowers, birds and other signs of attention.

Analysis of "About this" by Mayakovsky I would like to start with the big picture. The reader is waiting for a journey through the fate of the author, where he meets relatives, his beloved, society and himself next to the dear Neva River. He rushes through Moscow, he is looking for the truth. Here there is a past, a future, a present, it seems that Mayakovsky made a thesis description of what he feels, what worries him. However, Lily is the cause of such unrest.

Feelings overwhelm every word, and, summing upAs a result, the reader will see how closely Vladimir Mayakovsky is in this poem, how little space and how much misunderstanding. Works have a beginning, an end, sheet boundaries and dots, but for the author himself, these are conventions that he calls to go beyond. So he calls his love.

Part 1. Tormenting

Mayakovsky draws in the reader's imagination a certain topic, mysterious and known to everyone. Great and disarming. She torments and still beckons. The name of the topic is revealed in the last line only as a rhyme. The reader himself guesses that the main word is love. Here the emotional endurance of each line, characteristic of the poet, is obvious. He himself is in tension with his feelings and makes others feel tense while reading. Complicated speech turns and comparisons emphasize the importance and complexity of feelings. Love is really not a simple thing, but in separation from Lilia Mayakovsky felt it to the fullest.

Part 2. Confession

According to early analyzes of Mayakovsky's poem "About This", there was not just a description of reality and faces, but a grotesque presentation of one's soul to the public. And many things lived in it.

Declaration of love to his Leela was revealed in detail through the scene in the apartment - prison, where the poet locked himself from the outside world. Separation was difficult for him, and in his dreams, of course, he hoped at least for a phone call. Mayakovsky praised him unjustifiably highly. A conversation with Lilya would be salvation for him, quenching this spiritual thirst. The poet compares his experiences with an earthquake that is noticedeven on the street, and he himself, like a bear floating away on an ice floe, lonely and helpless.

So Vladimir Vladimirovich confesses his weakness before love, his captivity and fear of not being heard. Comparison with a bear is called by contemporaries an analogy with the Trickster - a half-deity and half-man with a dual contradictory nature.

Part 3. Phone distance

In fact, during the writing of the poem, Mayakovsky did not communicate with Lilia either in person or by phone. The distance between the couple was quite within reach, and with a call it would have been reduced by a thousand times. However, communication did not take place, and the poet began to feel an abyss the size of an entire universe. In some lines of the verse "About this" Mayakovsky will review a certain scene with his comrades. The usual situation for that time, when young people got together to relax, dance and have fun. The poet concretizes his renunciation. Describes being afraid to meet "her". But "she" can also save the author from death. Vladimir Vladimirovich sharply pulls himself together after a few lines. He reflects on his share and says to himself that if he survived 7 years, then another 200 can, without expecting salvation.

Let's continue the analysis. "About this" by Mayakovsky in the initial part explains that we are talking about the period from the moment he met Lilia Brik. These were painful years for a man, but for a poet, the time was rich in inspiring impulses. Therefore, realizing his dependence, he is ready to stand for 200 years, waiting for his beloved.

Part 4. Running

The controversial hero of the poem starts to run. He sees a man on a bridge who is in danger. And without analysis, it is obvious that this is Mayakovsky himself, only a few years earlier. A reference to the past, which, apparently, there was a desire to change. Further on the way, relatives meet, who also do not hear the pleas for the salvation of the “double on the bridge”. Vladimir Mayakovsky is convinced of the primitive love of his loved ones and leaves them. The poem "About This" by Mayakovsky, the analysis of which we are doing, in this part showed experts that the grotesque manner flows from one image to another and permeates the entire work. But, in this way, it becomes obvious that the author wants to show his sublime, unlike others, love.

Part 5. Fear

The journey is coming to an end, and time seems to have stopped chasing after the flow of the poet's thoughts. He finds himself at the top of the mountain, from where he sees the people standing below. They do not understand the purity of thoughts, and what he writes is not for the sake of money. The crowd, like horses in spurs, sees nothing around but routine and everyday life. For this they shoot at the author from different weapons. It's scary to be misunderstood, it's scary to become an enemy.

Mayakovsky has a sense of narcissism, although he did not admit it and did not show it. When analyzing this passage, the rise of the author above the crowd is striking. Remotely, he resembles Jesus, who was crucified for his sincere desire to help people and enlighten them, teach them to draw conclusions and analyze. The verse "About this" Mayakovsky wrote, however,emphasizing their atheism and communism.

Faith

It seems that the hero of the poem disappeared under the bullets, but Mayakovsky continues to reason after all the events with a kind of epilogue. The soul of the poet has a sincere hope for future generations: they will be able and will want to resurrect him and Lily so that they “catch up with the unloved”. He believes that in the future he will find true love without borders and frames, where the whole Universe is the scale of love.

And again, the obvious style - grotesque and futurism - is demonstrated by the poem "About this" by Vladimir Mayakovsky. The analysis allows us to understand: the poet decided to dream at the end and imagine that in the future he and his beloved will be resurrected for life in a better world. But why not in a year or two or not immediately? Vladimir Vladimirovich suggested that he was ahead of his time, and in the future there will be more like-minded people, and life will be calmer. It will be possible not to hide feelings, forget about patterns and, with the pressure inherent in Mayakovsky, burst in on a scale, with noise and boundless love for your only Lily.