An ardent enemy of raw water. The theme of the poet and poetry in the introduction to the poem by V.V. Mayakovsky "At the top of my voice"

V. Mayakovsky only managed to write the introduction to the poem “At the top of his voice.” In the center of the introduction is the personality of the poet himself, addressing his descendants, introducing himself to them - a creator, “a sewer man and a water carrier,” “mobilized and called up by the revolution,” “an agitator, a loud-mouthed leader.” The poet rejects chamber creativity, created by various “curly-haired Mithreikas” and “wise-wise Curly-haired women” who “mandolin from under the walls: / “tara-tina, tara-tina, / t-en-n...”. He affirms the significance of the poetry of work, of the laborer, which is the result of exhausting, but noble, labor that overcomes and conquers time.

V. Mayakovsky equates poetry not only with menial hard work, but also with “an old but formidable weapon”; he believes that it should not caress “the ear with words”, please the ears of girls, but serve, like a warrior, “the planet to the proletarian.” To confirm this main thesis, the work uses an extensive metaphorical comparison of artistic creativity with a military review - a parade in which poems, poems, witticisms, and rhymes take part.

The work affirms the importance of poetry serving the working class, draped in a red flag, born in battles and battles (“When / under bullets / the bourgeoisie ran from us, / as we / once / ran from them”).

The second idea of ​​the introduction is about the unselfishness of artistic creativity, which sounds especially active in the final part of the work. V. Mayakovsky expresses himself laconically, emotionally, his words sound like an oath of allegiance to the people and descendants.

And one more idea runs through the work - a polemical, critical attitude towards “poetic grabbers and burners”, towards supporters of lightweight poetry, not programmed for “menial labor”.

In terms of genre, the poem was conceived as lyrical and journalistic, but the introduction to it takes the form of a monologue, written in the best traditions of eloquence and oratory. Hence the numerous appeals (“Dear comrades and descendants!”, “Listen, comrades and descendants”), repetitions (“We discovered...”, “We taught dialectics...”), inversions (“I’m not used to caressing my ear with words.” ). However, in general, the introduction maintains direct word order.

As in his previous works, V. Mayakovsky successfully uses expressive tropes - epithets (“an old but formidable weapon”, “the poems stand leaden-heavy”, “yawning titles”), metaphors (“a swarm of questions”, “tuberculosis spits”, “the throat of our own song”, “line front”), comparisons (“poetry is a capricious woman”, “We opened / Marx / each volume / as in our own house / we open the shutters”).

In the style of V. Mayakovsky, in the introduction to the poem - the use of the author’s original, root, compound rhymes: “descendants - darkness”, “questions swarm - damp”, “water carrier - gardening”, “descendants - volumes”, “provityaz - governments”, “hunt comes”, etc. Many of the poet’s rhymes are innovative, consonant, in which the consonance of consonant sounds is observed. V. Mayakovsky often rhymes different parts of speech. The great master word-maker cannot do without neologisms (“burnouts” - playmakers of life, “consumptive spitting”, “don’t get excited” (from the word “scarlet”), “worked”, “mandolin”).

Almost all major writers discussed the role of the poet and the purpose of poetry in life. Russian literature has always been closely connected with social movements and discussed the most pressing problems of a particular era. The theme of the poet and poetry occupies an important place in the work of V. Mayakovsky. The author called for approaching art phenomena from a position of social significance. He believed that every artist should bring the people, first of all, the truth.

In the introduction to the poem “At the Top of My Voice,” which was never completed, V. Mayakovsky declares that he wants to talk about time and himself. The lyrical hero and the author literally merge into a single poetic “I” - the central image in the introduction. V. Mayakovsky was often reproached for egocentrism, for the fact that his lyrical hero perceives himself as the central point around which the world, the cosmos, and the entire universe revolves. The poet, on the contrary, perceived himself as “mobilized and called upon by the revolution.”

The work contains a hidden polemic with S. Yesenin, who glorified unique landscapes with all the power of his poetic talent, and also created a large layer of love lyrics, which V. Mayakovsky ironically calls “amorous and playful hunting.”

Who pours poetry from a watering can,

who sprinkles

putting it in your mouth -

curly Mithreikas,

wise Kudreiki -

Who the hell will figure them out!

The very rhythm of the verse in this passage speeds up to show how thematically shallow and rhythmically monotonous such poetry is. In the twenties there really were poets K.N. Mitreykin and A.A. Kudreiko, belonging to the literary group of constructivists. Now they are unknown to the reader. This fact once again emphasizes the validity of V. Mayakovsky’s criticism. But it is possible that such devastating and deafening criticism contributed to oblivion.

It is important that the poet in V. Mayakovsky’s work does not seek personal gain from his difficult craft.

For V. Mayakovsky, the idea of ​​civic and public duty comes first. He exclaims:

I'll come to you

to the communist far

not like that

like a song-like evityaz.

My verse will reach

across the ridges of centuries

and through the heads

poets and governments.

It would be superficial to see delusions of grandeur in these lines. The poet’s goal is not to assert himself, but to convey his beliefs. That is why he strives to write louder, more posterly, more prominently. This is exactly how large-scale, sweeping, enlarged, in the author’s opinion, a verse should be that descendants will know and remember through the centuries.

V. Mayakovsky angrily denounces ephemeral poetry, rewarding it with a number of eloquent comparisons (“like an erased nickel,” “like the light of dead stars”). For a poet, a poem is the most important work. Its novelty is as significant and progressive as, for example, running water:

My verse

labor

the vastness of years will break through

and will appear

weighty,

rough,

visibly

like these days

the water supply came in,

worked out

still slaves of Rome.

The adverbs “weighty”, “roughly”, “visibly” here seem to reinforce each other, characterizing the style of a truly talented work. It is known that critics often reproached Vladimir Mayakovsky himself for being excessively rude and self-centered. Indeed, in this work the pronoun “I” placed at the beginning of the line sounds majestic and solemn. However, this poetic “I” is somewhat broader than the author’s. It is more correct to understand it not as a specific person but as a creative artist in general. As for rude language, these reproaches seem more fair. And although swear words undoubtedly bring bright, memorable colors to the work, they at the same time reduce the aesthetic quality of the poetic text. In connection with this data, the technique is difficult to justify in an artistic sense. In modern poetry, it has become fashionable to include explicit swear words in the text, but This quality does not exactly contribute to increasing the vitality of the work, but only narrows the circle of fans of a particular author.

A technique designed to shock the reader is called shocking. V. Mayakovsky loved and often used it. Perhaps, having worked on the poem a little more, the author would have abandoned the openly abusive language, but in the existing version it occupies, albeit a small but key place in the work, the place of his ideas and his poetic voice: in other words, to shout enough to be, finally heard and acknowledged.

V. Mayakovsky's poems were created to defend one thing and subvert the other. His philosophical worldview included a number of utopian features. The poet believed in the idea of ​​​​creating an ideal future and assessed the past and present from the perspective of this future. At the same time, V. Mayakovsky agreed with the idea that the greatness of the goal justifies the means.

V. Mayakovsky compares poetry with an irreconcilable struggle, with a formidable weapon. He is helped in this by a number of expressive metaphors related to military realities (“pages of troops”, “line front”, “cavalry of witticisms”, “rhyme peaks”). The poet believes that works that were topical in his historical era will survive centuries and will be relevant for grateful descendants, telling them about the rebellious era of the early 20th century. After all, it is for those who will live in the new, fair society of the future that the fighters for the victory of socialism endure all the hardships and difficulties.

Mayakovsky’s poem “At the top of his voice”, strictly speaking, is not such a thing: the poet wrote only the introduction, but both critics and literary scholars consider it a full-fledged work. A brief analysis of “At the Top of Your Voice” according to plan will help 11th grade students understand why literary scholars believe this, as well as better appreciate the artistic perfection of the work. In a literature lesson, this analysis can be used both as main and additional material.

Brief Analysis

History of creation- the introduction to the poem was written by Vladimir Vladimirovich in the winter of 1929-1930. Thus, the poet embodied his desire to address the modern reader and descendants without intermediaries.

Theme of the poem– the author’s creative credo and the results of twenty years of poetic work.

Composition- one-part, throughout the entire poem the poet develops the same idea.

Genre- lyrical and journalistic poem.

Poetic size– tonic verse.

Epithets – “an old but formidable weapon”, “poems stand leaden-heavy”, “yawning titles”.

Metaphors – “a swarm of questions”, “tuberculosis spitting out”, “the throat of one’s own song”, “a line front”.

Comparisons – “poetry is a capricious woman”, “we opened Marx every volume, like we open the shutters in our own house”.

History of creation

The work was written shortly before the suicide of its author. This was the period when Mayakovsky was preparing for a special exhibition dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of his work. But this seemingly joyful time, in fact, turned out to be gloomy for him - there was a lot of criticism, many colleagues and critics made harsh statements against him.

Apparently, this gave rise to Vladimir Vladimirovich’s desire to talk directly with his reader. He conceived a grandiose work - the poem “At the top of his voice”, but only wrote its introduction. He was unable or unwilling to work further on the work: the poem with the subtitle “First Introduction to the Poem” was completed in January 1930, and already in April a tragic suicide occurred.

The work is called a poem only by tradition, but this is quite significant.

Subject

At the end of his life (although it is unknown whether the poet was planning his suicide even then), Mayakovsky once again turned to the important topic of creativity for himself - more precisely, its purpose and its place in the creative process. He chooses a difficult path - to tell only the truth about himself and the time in which he lives. And he speaks - harshly and without excessive politeness.

Composition

In his work, Vladimir Vladimirovich acts both as an author and as a lyrical hero. He promotes a rejection of art as an aesthetic approach, talks about the social component of poetry, and even calls himself a “sewage man-water carrier,” that is, on the one hand, he gives people what they need, on the other hand, he often deals with the most unsightly side of reality .

The main idea of ​​the poem is to accurately express Mayakovsky’s creative credo: poetry is work, it should motivate people, there is no place for prettiness, it is part of life, everyday life.

The poet says that there is poetry that is closed in its philistinism, like flowers in a master's garden. It is created simply for the sake of beautiful words and has neither a social burden nor the right to tell people how to live and what to do. But his poetry is not like that, it is a weapon. And the poet is her servant-commander, who brings out the words at the solemn military parade.

At the same time, he does not seek rewards or recognition; his army may even die completely. The main thing is victory, namely, a harmonious, healthy and fair society.

Genre

Although “At the Top of Your Voice” belongs somewhat conventionally to the genre of poem, the work still turned out to be quite epic. In this case, the main thing is the scale of the thought, which, although embodied in a small poem in comparison with the poem, does not lose its strength and grandeur.

Using the tonic system of versification, Mayakovsky, as usual, emphasizes rhythm and verbal stress. He singles out those words that, in his opinion, best express the thought and allow him to express the rebellious moods and vivid emotions that overwhelm the poet.

Means of expression

In addition to the neologisms characteristic of his poetic word, Vladimir Vladimirovich also uses familiar artistic tropes, making them bright and harsh. So, the work uses:

• Epithets- “an old but formidable weapon”, “the poems stand leaden-heavy”, “yawning titles”.
• Metaphors– “a swarm of questions”, “tuberculosis spitting out”, “the throat of one’s own song”, “a line front”.
• Comparisons- “poetry is a capricious woman”, “we opened Marx every volume, like we open the shutters in our own house.”

Thanks to them, the poem seems to be carved into eternal granite, preserving the memory of Mayakovsky the poet.

An interesting paradox is that this poem was never written by Mayakovsky. Literally before his death, he wrote only an introduction to it, which he dedicated to the first Soviet five-year plan in late 1929 - early 1930.

Getting to the topic “Analysis: “At the top of my voice” by Mayakovsky,” it should be noted that the poet timed this verse to coincide with the anniversary exhibition - the 25th anniversary of his creative path. He himself, speaking to the assembled public, said that this work fully and completely reflected everything that he had worked on all these many years, and presented it as a report on the creative work done. So, without suspecting it, he continued with this the classic theme of the “monument”, begun by Derzhavin and Pushkin.

“At the top of my voice”, Mayakovsky: analysis

In this introduction, the famous poet contrasts himself with pure art, which does not recognize any politics. It is in this role that one gets the general impression of his attitude to creativity in general and to its individual representatives in particular.

In a way, it became a kind of message to future descendants. The poet seems to evaluate himself with a view from the future, looking into the present, where he immediately amazes with the lines: “I, a sewer man and a water carrier, mobilized by the revolution...”.

With these words, he creates a certain image of poetry without meaning and purpose, which he sarcastically and sharply ridicules, calling it a “capricious woman.”

Poems as a weapon

His poems are not just lines on paper, he uses them as a serious weapon in the fight for the communist cause.

The poet-agitator hints that he is not afraid of the government, or “lyric volumes,” or “ridges of centuries.” Mayakovsky openly declares this loudly. The analysis of the work boils down to the fact that his weapon does not injure or kill a person, but it can very strongly hit the soul and heart of a person. He writes prophetic lines in which he hints that his poems stand like lead and are ready for death.

Inspiration

Mayakovsky wrote all his most desired things in the poem “At the top of his voice.” Its analysis suggests that everything that the poet did was not created for aesthetic pleasure, because it builds, inspires and fights meaninglessness, moves forward and leads the masses. He thought that his calling was to realize socialist dreams and move towards a bright future with the broad masses.
The writer calls: “Die my verse like a private.” He believes that for social well-being, a poet must work hard, forgetting about himself and not thinking about reward, sacrificing his creativity.

He writes in his poem that he doesn’t need anything other than a freshly washed shirt, and that the poet and society are inseparable.

Fate and Motherland

In continuation of the topic “Mayakovsky “At the top of his voice”: analysis of the poem,” it should be noted that the active creator calls the descendants dexterous and healthy, and, in his opinion, they should remember how hard everything was paid for; he compared it with licking “consumptive spitting."

It’s a little surprising, but Vladimr Vladimirovich describes the future that the “communist far away” has already arrived, into which he invested maximum effort, because every day of his work he invested in the future.

The poet considers it his civic duty to build a worthy future, and this desire literally weakened his soul.

Cry of the soul

Mayakovsky shouts about this in his poem “At the top of his voice.” Analysis of the introduction suggests that the poet inspires the people to build a bright future, and that everyone should remember those who were involved in the battle for socialism and communism, and not forget their desperate work. Their soul lives in every line of it and will certainly pass through the centuries.

The great ideological leader addresses them as those who truly believe in communism, and expresses himself as a descendant of these people who can no longer imagine what it was possible to believe in so sincerely and deeply, and whether there will be as many forces as there were in the forefathers of the October Revolution.

Conclusion

From the introduction to the poem “At the Top of My Voice” it became clear that it is in some form a will, written almost three months before his tragic death. This question is even more interesting, since it remains unclear whether the poet was killed or it was suicide. Many historians and forensic experts, examining all the facts, documents and evidence, came to the conclusion that he was killed after all. And they killed him because he began to delve into the affairs of Stalin’s government, which deviated from the Leninist course that millions of people dreamed of. This is a dark matter, the same as with Yesenin.

However, the most interesting thing remains that his faith nevertheless began to waver at the end of his life, and he had his own reasons for this. Even such a notorious communist would eventually burst out of his soul on the evening of April 13, 1930, “Oh, Lord!” At this moment, his beloved woman, Polonskaya, will be next to him, who will be very surprised by this exclamation and will ask him again whether he is a believer. And Vladimir will answer her that he himself no longer understands what he believes in...