Yesterday, July 19, was the birthday of Vladimir Mayakovsky, the famous Soviet poet, whose poems are not often heard now, since for the current "bourgeois" government, Mayakovsky is a direct enemy and hater. Here is the memorable date - 119 years (next year the anniversary - 120 years) from the birthday of the poet, no one anywhere in the media announced. Thank God, there are today not indifferent people among Internet bloggers who remember and love the poetry of this, of course, an extraordinary innovative poet, but, at the same time, a poet - a quivering romantic who lived through his whole life an unrequited love for a woman who was close to him , and at the same time, it is infinitely far from the most tragic death.
Personally, I am very close in spirit to the poems of the early, young Mayakovsky, the poems of a daring rebel and overthrower of the unjust power of the bourgeoisie of those tsarist times.
Here, for example, is the famous poem "You!", Written and published in 1915, in the midst of the First World War. Imagine a small cozy cafe in one of the suburbs of Petrograd dacha, at the tables - a respectable audience - ladies in white fluffy dresses and wide-brimmed hats, men in frock coats and bowler hats. A tall, hefty young guy in a wide bright yellow blouse and a thunderous bass begins to recite poetry on a small stage of the cafe:

To you,

living behind an orgy orgy,

Having a bathroom and a warm closet ...

Shame on you

about submitted to "George"

Subtract from newspaper columns!

Did you know,

talentless, many,

Thinking to get drunk is better like,

Maybe now a leg bomb

Tore the lieutenant from Petrov!

And if he

brought to slaughter

I saw suddenly, wounded,

How are you,

lip smeared in a cutlet,

Lustfully humming the Severyanin ...

Whether you, who love women and dishes,

Give life to please?

I'd rather be whores in a bar

Serve Pineapple Water!

Ladies, throwing up their hands, faint, men rush to the stage with their fists ...

To you, living behind an orgy, an orgy,
having a bathroom and a warm closet!
Shame on those presented to George
read from newspaper columns?

Do you know, mediocre, many,
thinking to get drunk better like, -
maybe now leg bomb
tore out the lieutenant from Petrov? ..

If he is brought to the slaughter,
suddenly saw, wounded,
how are you with your lip smeared in a cutlet
humming Severyanin lasciviously!

Whether you, who love women and dishes,
to give life for the sake of?
I'd rather be at the bar ...
serve pineapple water!

Analysis of the poem "You" by Mayakovsky

One of the most politicized poets of the "Silver Age", a fiery revolutionary, V. V. Mayakovsky, from the very beginning, stood out from the circle of futurist poets for his clear-cut civic position.

In 1915, at the height of the First World War, he wrote a poem, which he called "You!"

The author does not call his opponents by name, he addresses them in the plural, thereby demonstrating that these people do not have their own personality, their own individuality. For him, they are just a faceless crowd. From the very beginning, in the very first quatrain, Mayakovsky contrasts the shamelessly idle lifestyle with the same shameless interest in news from the front. He points out that while these impersonal people live for their own pleasure, somewhere in the west another lieutenant is dying. Mayakovsky regrets that this lieutenant does not see all the depravity of the capital, he regrets the indifference with which all these people relate to what is happening in the country and the world. He wonders how one can read about the lists of those awarded the St. George's Cross, living in luxurious conditions. After all, it is obvious that the St.George Cross is awarded for military services, lives are sacrificed. In the last quatrain, the author asks the question, is it worth crawling in front of such people? He immediately demonstrates his attitude towards them by the fact that he would better serve, let's say, women of easy virtue, thereby showing all the baseness and worthlessness of such a philistine way of life.

Mayakovsky complains about the limited thinking of his opponents. They do not care about anything except their tight, cozy, warm world, and everything that happens outside of it is not their business. Even when they have an interest in what is happening around, Mayakovsky sees in him only the same idleness.

The author tries to shame an idle society, appeals to conscience, urges to moderate appetites. Mayakovsky does not forget to stigmatize the singers of such a life, in particular, the poet I. Severyanin, with whom he was in the same circle of futurists, but had a falling out over his attitude to the First World War.

The poem differs from other works of Mayakovsky in that it is written in ordinary quatrains, and not in the usual "ladder". It does not ridicule this society, it denounces it with crude epithets and obscene expressions. With the help of vivid expressive expressions, the author contrasts the cozy, limited world of the metropolitan bourgeoisie with the harsh and gloomy life of the rest of the country.

Read the verse "You!" Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich is available on the website. The poem was written in 1915, when Russia was dragged into the First World War. Obeying military duty, echelons of Russian soldiers were sent to the front. The writer Mikhail Bulgakov and the poet Nikolai Gumilyov went to the front. Vladimir Mayakovsky also signed up as a volunteer, but for reasons of "unreliability" he was not sent to the field.

Another part of the youth remained in a prosperous environment with a "warm closet and bath" and spent their lives in laziness and idleness. The poet is outraged by the indifferent cynicism of the townsfolk, among whom are his yesterday's schoolmates. They burn their lives, having fun in drinking establishments, playing cards, dancing at balls. Representatives of the intellectual part of young people are familiar with world and Russian poetry, they visit literary salons, among them there are fans of the futurist poet Mayakovsky. They honor themselves as patriots, discuss the current course of the war and quote Igor Severyanin. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Petrov is ripped off his leg by a bomb, and thousands of ordinary soldiers are used as "cannon fodder" and led to the slaughter. For those who stayed away from the smoke of gunpowder and read, as it were between times, "newspaper columns", looking for familiar names in the lists of those awarded the Cross of St. George, the poet throws down his angry denunciation. He bitterly realizes the injustice of the world, the senselessness of war, when people's lives are disposed of for the sake of incomprehensible political ambitions. The poet agrees to serve in the bar, serving pineapple juice, than to give his life for the sake of the well-fed well-being of useless representatives of the "golden youth".

The text of Mayakovsky's poem "You!" can be downloaded completely online. The work can be taught in class at a literature lesson.

To you, living behind an orgy, an orgy,
having a bathroom and a warm closet!
Shame on those presented to George
read from newspaper columns?

Do you know, mediocre, many,
thinking to get drunk better like, -
maybe now leg bomb
snatched the lieutenant from Petrov? ..

If he is brought to the slaughter,
suddenly saw, wounded,
how are you with your lip smeared in a cutlet
humming Severyanin lasciviously!

Whether you, who love women and dishes,
to give life for the sake of?
I'd rather be at the bar ...
serve pineapple water!