Analysis of the poem "cloud in pants". Cloud in pants Characteristics of the main characters

Analysis of Mayakovsky's poem "Cloud in Pants"

The original title of the poem - "The Thirteenth Apostle" - was replaced by censorship. Mayakovsky said: “When I came to the censorship with this work, they asked me: “What, did you want to go to hard labor?” I said that in no case, that this in no way suits me. Then they crossed out six pages for me, including the title. This is a question of where the title came from. I was asked how I could combine lyricism and great rudeness. Then I said: “Okay, if you want, I’ll be like crazy, if you want, I’ll be the most gentle, not a man, but a cloud in my pants.”1

The first edition of the poem (1915) contained a large number of censored notes. The poem was published in its entirety, without cuts, at the beginning of 1918 in Moscow with a preface by V. Mayakovsky: ““Cloud in Pants”... I consider it a catechism for today’s art: “Down with your love!”, “Down with your art!”, “Down with your system.” !”, “Down with your religion” - four cries of four parts.”

Each part of the poem expresses a specific idea. But the poem itself cannot be strictly divided into chapters in which four cries of “Down!” are consistently expressed. The poem is not at all divided into sections with its “Down!”, but is a complete, passionate lyrical monologue, caused by the tragedy of unrequited love. Experiences lyrical hero take over different spheres of life, including those where loveless love, false art, criminal power dominate, and Christian patience is preached. The movement of the lyrical plot of the poem is determined by the hero’s confession, which at times reaches high tragedy (the first publications of excerpts from “The Cloud” had the subtitle “tragedy”).

The first part of the poem is about the poet’s tragic unrequited love. It contains jealousy and pain of unprecedented strength, the hero’s nerves rebelled: “like a sick person, a nerve jumped out of bed,” then the nerves “jumped madly, and the nerves’ legs began to give way.”

The author of the poem painfully asks: “Will there be love or not? Which one is big or tiny? The entire chapter is not a treatise on love, but the poet’s experiences spilled out. The chapter reflects the emotions of the lyrical hero: “Hello! Who's speaking? Mother? Mother! Your son is beautifully sick! Mother! His heart is on fire." The love of the lyrical hero of the poem was rejected (It was, it was in Odessa; “I’ll come at four,” said Maria2. / Eight. / Nine. / Ten... The twelfth hour fell, / like the head of an executed man from the block; You entered, / sharp , like “here!”, / tormenting the suede gloves, / said: “You know - / I’m getting married”), and this leads him to deny love-sweet-voiced chant, because true love is difficult, it is love-suffering.

His ideas about love are defiant, polemically frank and shocking: “Mary! The poet of the sonnet sings to Tiana3, // and I / am all meat, a whole man - // I simply ask for your body, // as Christians ask - // “Our daily bread - / give us this day.” For the lyrical hero, love is equivalent to life itself. Lyricism and rudeness here outwardly contradict each other, but from a psychological point of view, the hero’s reaction is understandable: his rudeness is a reaction to the rejection of his love, it is a defensive reaction.

V. Kamensky, Mayakovsky’s companion on a trip to Odessa, wrote about Maria that she was a completely extraordinary girl, she “combined the high qualities of a captivating appearance and an intellectual aspiration for everything new, modern, revolutionary...” “Excited, tossed up by a whirlwind of love experiences, after the first dates with Maria, - says V. Kamensky, - he flew into our hotel like a festive spring sea wind and enthusiastically repeated: “This is a girl, this is a girl!”... Mayakovsky, who had not yet known love, for the first time I experienced this enormous feeling that I could not cope with. Engulfed in the “fire of love,” he did not know what to do, what to do, where to go.”

The hero's unsatisfied, tragic feelings cannot coexist with cold vanity, with refined, refined literature. To express genuine and strong feelings, the street does not have enough words: “the street is writhing, tongueless - it has nothing to shout and talk with.” Therefore, the author denies everything that was previously created in the field of art:

I'm above everything that's done

I put "nihil".

Of all types of art, Mayakovsky turns to poetry: it has become too detached from real life and from the real language spoken by the street, the people. The poet exaggerates this gap:

corpses of dead words decompose.

For Mayakovsky, the soul of the people is important, and not its external appearance (“We have smallpox from the soot. I know that the sun would darken if it saw the gold placers of our souls”). The third chapter is also devoted to the topic of poetry:

And from cigarette smoke / with a liqueur glass

Severyanin’s drunken face stretched out.

How dare you call yourself a poet

And, little gray one, chirp like a quail.

Today / we must / use brass knuckles / to cut the world into the skull.

The lyrical hero declares his break with previous poets, with “pure poetry”:

From you, who were wet with love,

From which / a tear flowed for a century,

I'll leave / the sun's monocle

I’ll insert it into the wide open eye.

Another “down” of the poem is “down with your system”, your “heroes”: “iron Bismarck”, billionaire Rothschild and the idol of many generations – Napoleon. “I will lead Napoleon on a chain like a pug,” the author declares.

The theme of the collapse of the old world runs through the entire third chapter. In revolution, Mayakovsky sees a way to put an end to this hated system and calls for revolution - for this bloody, tragic and festive action, which should burn out the vulgarity and dullness of life:

Go! / Mondays and Tuesdays

Let's paint it with blood for the holidays!

Let the earth remember under the knives,

who did you want to vulgarize!

Earth, / fattened like a mistress,

which Rothschild loved!

So that the flags flutter in the heat of fire,

like every decent holiday -

Raise the lampposts higher,

bloody carcasses of meadowsweet.

The author of the poem sees the coming future, where there will be no loveless love, bourgeois refined poetry, bourgeois system and religion of patience. And he himself sees himself as the “thirteenth apostle”, “forerunner” and herald of the new world, calling for cleansing from colorless life:

I, ridiculed by today's tribe,

like a long obscene joke,

I see time passing through the mountains,

which no one sees.

Where people's eyes break short,

the head of the hungry hordes,

in the crown of thorns revolutions

the sixteenth year is coming.

And I am your forerunner!

The hero strives to melt his unrelieved pain; he, as it were, rises to a new height in his personal experiences, trying to protect the future from the humiliations that befell him. And he begins to see how his grief and the grief of many will end - in the “sixteenth year.”

The hero goes through a painful path of ups and downs in the poem. This became possible because his heart is full of the deepest personal experiences. In the fourth chapter of the poem, hopeless longing for his beloved returns. "Maria! Maria! Maria!" - the name sounds hysterically as a refrain, in it - “a born word, equal in greatness to God.” The prayers and confessions are confusing and endless - there is no answer from Mary. And a daring rebellion begins against the Almighty - “a half-educated, tiny little god.” Rebellion against the imperfections of earthly relationships and feelings:

Why didn't you make it up?

so that there is no pain

kiss, kiss, kiss?!

The lyrical hero of the poem is a “handsome twenty-two-year-old.” With the maximalism of a young man entering life, the poem expresses the dream of a time devoid of suffering, of a future existence where “millions of huge pure loves” will triumph. The theme of personal, unresolved turmoil develops into a glorification of future happiness.

The author is disappointed in the moral power of religion. The revolution, according to Mayakovsky, should bring not only social liberation, but also moral cleansing. The anti-religious pathos of the poem was sharply defiant, repelling some and attracting others. For example, M. Gorky was “struck by the atheistic current in the poem.” “He quoted verses from “A Cloud in Pants” and said that he had never read such a conversation with God... and that Mayakovsky had a great time with God.”4

I thought you were an all-powerful god,

and you are a dropout, tiny god.

You see, I’m bending over / because of my boot

I take out a shoe knife.

Winged scoundrels! / Cuddle in paradise!

Ruffle your feathers in frightened shaking!

I will open you, smelling of incense

from here to Alaska!

Hey you! Sky! / Take off your hat! I'm coming!

The universe is sleeping

putting it on your paw

with ticks of stars a huge ear.

Features of Mayakovsky's poetics

V. Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" (like his other works) is characterized by hyperbolism, originality, and planetary comparisons and metaphors. Their excessiveness sometimes creates difficulties for perception. M. Tsvetaeva, for example, who loved Mayakovsky’s poems, believed that “It is unbearable to read Mayakovsky for a long time due to purely physical waste. After Mayakovsky you need to eat a lot and for a long time.”

K.I. drew attention to the difficulty of reading and understanding Mayakovsky. Chukovsky: “Mayakovsky’s images surprise and amaze. But in art this is dangerous: in order to constantly amaze the reader, no amount of talent is enough. In one poem by Mayakovsky we read that the poet is licking a red-hot brazier, in another that he swallows a burning cobblestone, then he takes out the spine from his back and plays it like a flute. It's stunning. But when on other pages he pulls out his living nerves and makes a butterfly net out of them, when he makes himself a monocle out of the sun, we almost cease to be surprised. And when he then dresses the cloud in pants (the poem “Cloud in Pants”), he asks us:

Here, / want, / I’ll take it out / from the right eye

a whole blooming grove?!

the reader doesn’t care anymore: if you want it, take it out, if you don’t want it, no. You won't get through to the reader anymore. He became numb."5 In his extravagance, Mayakovsky is sometimes monotonous and therefore few people love his poetry.

But now, after the recent heated debate about Mayakovsky, and the attempts of some critics to throw Mayakovsky himself off the ship of modernity, it is hardly worth proving that Mayakovsky is a unique, original poet. This is a poet of the street and at the same time a subtle, easily vulnerable lyricist. At one time (in 1921) K.I. Chukovsky wrote an article about the poetry of A. Akhmatova and V. Mayakovsky - the “quiet” poetry of one and the “loud” poetry of the other poet. It is quite obvious that the poems of these poets are not similar, even polar opposites. Who does K.I prefer? Chukovsky? The critic not only contrasts the poems of the two poets, but also brings them together, because they are united by the presence of poetry in them: “To my surprise, I love both equally: Akhmatova and Mayakovsky, for me they are both mine. For me there is no question: Akhmatova or Mayakovsky? I love both that cultured, quiet, old Rus' that Akhmatova embodies, and that plebeian, stormy, square, drum-bravura Russia that Mayakovsky embodies. For me, these two elements do not exclude, but complement one another; they are both equally necessary.”6

The purpose of the lesson: show the logic of development of the idea of the work.

Methodical techniques: analytical reading of the poem.

During the classes.

I. Checking homework.

Reading and discussion of selected poems.

II. Teacher's word

From his earliest poems, Mayakovsky was characterized by excessive lyrical openness, reckless inner openness. There is practically no distance between the specific lyrical “I” of the poet and his lyrical hero. The lyrical experiences are so intense that, no matter what he writes about, a sharp lyrical, individual intonation permeates the fabric of his poetry. This is also his first poem with the mysterious and shocking title “A Cloud in Pants” (1915). Mayakovsky himself defined it as a “tetraptych”, the meaning of the four parts of which is “down with your love”, “down with your art”, “down with your system”, “down with your religion”.

III. Analytical conversation

What associations reminiscences does this definition of Mayakovsky evoke?

(The categorical nature of the lyrical hero’s judgments and statements recalls the uncompromising nihilism, rebellion of Bazarov. Let us remember the subject of disputes between Bazarov and Kirsanov - it practically coincides with what Mayakovsky writes about.)

What image unites the parts of the poem?

(The parts of the poem are connected by the leading image - the lyrical “I”.)

In what ways is he portrayed?

(The main image technique is antithesis . The opposition to the entire society in the prologue of the poem grows to the opposition to the entire universe at the end. This is not just a dispute, it is a daring challenge, so characteristic of the work of early Mayakovsky (remember the poems “Here!”, “To You!”):

Your thought
dreaming on a softened brain,
like an overweight lackey on a greasy couch,
I will tease about the bloody flap of the heart,
I mock him to my heart's content, impudent and caustic. ("Cloud in Pants", intro)

Only an incredibly powerful personality can resist anything and everything and not break. Hence the next trick - hyperbolization image: “Having enlarged the world with the power of my voice, / I walk, beautiful, / twenty-two years old”; hyperbole can be combined with a comparison: “like the sky, changing tones.” The range of this personality is the poles: “mad” - “impeccably gentle, / not a man, but a cloud in his pants!” This is how the meaning of the title of the poem manifests itself. This is self-irony, but the main feeling that captured the hero is indicated: “tenderness.” How does it fit in with the rebellious element of the poem?

How is love portrayed in the poem?

First part- an extremely frank story about love. The reality of what is happening is deliberately emphasized: “It was, / was in Odessa.” Love does not transform, but distorts the “block” of a person: “They couldn’t recognize me now: / the sinewy hulk / groans, / writhes.” It turns out that this “block” “wants a lot.” “Much” is actually very simple and human:

After all, it doesn’t matter to yourself
and the fact that it is bronze,
and that the heart is a cold piece of iron.
At night I want my own ringing
hide in something soft
into women's.

The love of this “hulk” should be a “small, humble darling.” Why? The community is exceptional, there is no other. The affectionate neologism “liubenochek,” reminiscent of “baby,” emphasizes the strength of feeling and touching tenderness. The hero is at the limit of feeling, every minute, hour of waiting for his beloved is agony. And as a result of suffering - execution: “The twelfth hour fell, / like the head of an executed man falling from the block.” Nerves are exposed and frayed. The metaphor is realized “Nerves / big, / small, / many! - / they are jumping madly, / and already / their legs are giving way from their nerves!”

Finally, the heroine appears. The conversation is not about love and dislike. The effect on the lyrical hero of the words of his beloved is conveyed by the grinding sound recording:

You came in
sharp, like “here!”
mucha suede gloves,
said:
"You know -
I'm getting married".

What techniques are used to convey the hero’s psychological state?

The psychological state of the hero is conveyed very strongly - through his external calm: “See - how calm he is! / Like the pulse of a dead man”; “and the worst thing / you saw was my face / when / I was absolutely calm?” Internal suffering, the tornness of the soul are emphasized by transference (enzhanbeman): you need to restrain yourself, and therefore speak clearly, slowly, measuredly.

“The fire of the heart” burns the hero: “I’ll jump out! I'll jump out! I'll jump out! I'll jump out! / Collapsed. / You won’t jump out of your heart!” Here the phraseology “the heart jumps out of the chest” is turned inside out. The catastrophe that befell the hero is comparable to world catastrophes: “The last cry, / even / that I’m burning, will groan for centuries!”

What is the logic of development of the poem in the second part?

The tragedy of love is experienced by the poet. It's logical that The second part- about the relationship between the hero and art. The part begins with the hero’s decisive statement: “I am above everything that has been done, / I put “nihil” (“nothing”, lat.). The hero denies the “tormented”, sluggish art, which is done like this: “before it begins to sing, / they walk for a long time, limp from fermentation, / and quietly flounder in the mud of the heart / the stupid roach of the imagination.” “Boiling” “some kind of brew out of love and nightingales” is not for him. These “loves” - “nightingales” - are not for the street, which “writhes tongueless.” Bourgeoisism and philistinism filled the city, crushing living words with their carcasses. The hero shouts, calling for a rebellion against “those who have attached themselves with a free application / to every double bed”: “We ourselves are the creators in the burning hymn!” This is a hymn to living life, which is placed above the “I”:

I,
golden-mouthed,
whose every word
newborn soul,
birthday body
I tell you:
the smallest speck of living dust
more valuable than anything I will do and have done!
(Please note neologisms Mayakovsky).

“Screaming-lipped Zarathustra” (Nietzschean motifs are generally strong in the early Mayakovsky), speaking about the coming “in the crown of thorns of revolutions” “the year of sixteen,” clearly defines his role:

And I am your forerunner!
I am where the pain is, everywhere;
on every tear drop
crucified himself on the cross.

How do you understand these words?

Here the hero already identifies himself with God himself. He is ready for self-sacrifice: “I will pull out the soul, / trample it, / so that it’s big! - / and I will give the bloody one as a banner.” This is the goal and purpose of poetry and the poet, worthy of the “hulk” of the hero’s personality.

How is this goal illustrated in Part Three?

The thought of the poem logically moves to those who are to be led under this “banner” made from the hero’s “trampled soul”:

From you,
who were wet with love,
from which
for centuries a tear has flowed,
I'll leave
sun monocle
I’ll insert it into the wide open eye.

There is vulgarity, mediocrity, ugliness all around. The hero is sure: “Today / we must / use brass knuckles / to cut the world into the skull!” Where are the “geniuses” recognized by humanity? The following fate is destined for them: “I will lead Napoleon on a chain like a pug.” This vulgar world must be destroyed at all costs:

Take your hands out of your trousers -
take a stone, a knife or a bomb,
and if he has no hands -
come and fight with your forehead!
Go, you hungry ones,

Sweaty,
humble,
soured in flea-filled dirt!
Go!
Mondays and Tuesdays
Let's paint it with blood for the holidays!

The lyrical hero himself takes on the role of the “thirteenth apostle.” With God he is already easily: “maybe Jesus Christ is sniffing / my soul’s forget-me-nots.” -

How does the lyrical love theme manifest itself in the fourth movement? How does it change?

From global plans to remake the world, the hero returns to thoughts about his beloved. However, he did not escape these thoughts; they were only sublimated in a powerful creative attempt to challenge the entire universe. The name "Maria" is shouted repeatedly. This is a plea for love. And the hero becomes submissive, almost humiliated, “just a man”: “and I am all meat, / I am all man - I simply ask for your body, / as Christians ask - “give us this day our daily bread.” The beloved replaces everything, she is necessary, like “daily bread.” The poet speaks of his “word born in agony”: it is “equal in greatness to God.” This, of course, is blasphemy, gradually developing into rebellion against God.

The refusal of his beloved provokes this rebellion of the suffering and desperate hero. At first he is simply familiar:

Listen, Mister God!
Aren't you bored?
Into the cloudy jelly
Soak your sore eyes every day?

Then familiarity goes beyond all boundaries: the hero is already on first name terms with God, openly rude to him:

Shaking your head, curly?
Will you raise your gray eyebrow?
You think -
this,
behind you, winged one,
knows what love is?

The main accusation against God is not the incorrect structure of the world, not social injustice. The imperfection of the world is “why didn’t you invent / so that it would be painless / to kiss, kiss, kiss?!” The hero’s despair reaches the point of frenzy, rage, almost madness, he shouts out terrible blasphemies, the elements overwhelm him:

I thought you were an all-powerful god,
And you are a dropout, tiny god.
You see I'm bending over
Because of the boot
I take out a shoe knife.
Winged scoundrels!
Hang out in paradise!
Ruffle your feathers in frightened shaking!
I will open you, smelling of incense
From here to Alaska!
Let me in!
Can't stop me.

And suddenly he humbles himself: “Hey, you! / Sky! / Take off your hat! / I'm coming! (he is already speaking with the sky again, although his pride has not yet been strangled). Nothing listens to the hero: “Deaf. / The universe sleeps, / with its huge ear resting on its paw / with the pincers of the stars.”

IV. Teacher's final words

Violently conflicting with the world, the hero reveals his rebellious essence. The hero’s inconsistency, the combination in him of extreme “looseness” and extreme tenderness, aggravate the conflict. The inconsistency that tears apart the hero dooms him to tragic loneliness.

V. Workshop on the poem by V.V. Mayakovsky “Cloud in Pants”

1. Poet Nikolay Aseev wrote: “A Cloud in Pants” is a mocking title that replaced the original one, prohibited by censorship, and was the first experience of a large theme built on the opposition of existing routines, institutions, institutions to what is replacing them, what is felt in the air, felt in the verse - the future revolution."

Why, according to Aseev, is the title of the poem “Cloud in Pants” “mocking”?

What did Aseev mean by “experiment on a big topic”?

What is the “contrast with existing routines”? Give examples from the text.

2. V. Mayakovsky said in March 1930: “It (“Cloud in Pants”) began as a letter in 1913/14 and was first called “The Thirteenth Apostle.” When I came to the censorship with this work, they asked me: “What, do you want to go to hard labor?” I said that in no case, that this did not suit me in any way. Then they crossed out six pages for me, including the title. It's a question of where the title came from. I was asked how I could combine lyrics and great rudeness. Then I said: “Okay, if you want, I will be like crazy, if you want, I will be the most gentle, not a man, but a cloud in my pants.”

Why did the original title of the poem “The Thirteenth Apostle” evoke the idea of hard labor among the censors?

What is the combination of “lyricism and great rudeness” in the poem “Cloud in Pants”? Give examples from the text.

What is the meaning of the new title of the poem? How does the poet himself explain it? Does the title “Cloud in Pants” reflect the character of the lyrical hero of the work?

3. “Poems and poems created in 1915.(“Clouds in Pants”, “Flute and Spine”), they said that a major humanist poet and soulful lyricist had come to literature. In a poem about love robbed modern life(“Cloud in Pants”), the voice of the author himself sounds loudly, the facts of his biography acquire a high poetic generalization here...” (K. D. Muratova).

What are the “facts... biography” of V. Mayakovsky that can be recognized in his poem?

According to Muratova, in the poem “the voice of the author himself sounds loudly,” is this true? Justify your answer, give examples from the text.

4. K.D. Muratova writes about “Cloud in Pants”: “The poem is given great originality by its metaphorical richness; almost every line in it is metaphorical. An example of a materialized metaphor is the line “the fire of the heart” of the poet, which is extinguished by firefighters, or “sick nerves” that “thrash around in a desperate tap dance,” causing the plaster on the ground floor to collapse.”

What gives grounds to say that in the poem “almost every line is metaphorical”? Do you agree with the critic's statement?

What do you think is meant by the term “materialized metaphor”? Give examples of such metaphors in the text of the poem.

5. “One of the main features is visible in “The Cloud...” Mayakovsky's thinking: the ability for powerful associative condensations of themes, images, plots that are very far from each other. What do Severyanin, Bismarck and the “carcasses of the meadowsweet” have in common? And what do they have to do with the suffering rejected lover - the “thirteenth apostle”, now offering God to have “girls” in heaven, now threatening him with a knife? (S. Bovin).

What, according to Bovin, is the main feature of “Mayakovsky’s thinking”? Find examples of this type of thinking in the text.

The researcher poses certain questions to the reader regarding Mayakovsky's work. Try to answer them yourself. Are there any answers to them in the poem itself?

6. A.A. Mikhailov writes about “A Cloud in Pants”: “Blasphemy, aggressive language, street rudeness and deliberate anti-aestheticism reveal anarchic tendencies, the rebellious element of the poem. And although Mayakovsky, blaspheming, exalts a person, the elements overwhelm him: “Take your hands out of your trousers, you walkers, take a stone, a knife or a bomb...”

What does the critic say about the “anarchic tendencies” and the “rebellious element of the poem”? Do you agree with this?

How, in your opinion, does Mayakovsky “elevate man” by “blaspheming”? Give examples from the text.

The calling card of the pre-revolutionary Mayakovsky is a futurist whose texts promise something more than futurism. The poet, who has declared himself the voice of the street, burns with love for a woman named Maria, denies the old art and challenges God, all with a passion and verbal inventiveness that has never yet been seen in Russian poetry.

comments: Svetlana Kazakova

What is this poem about?

“A Cloud in Pants” is a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky in four parts, which the author called "catechism Summary the basic dogmas of Christianity (from ancient Greek κατηχισμός - teaching). Usually the catechism is presented in the form of questions and answers. In a figurative sense, a catechism is understood as any textbook work that contains a set of certain immutable rules. ⁠ today's art." The “tetraptych” composition reflected the rebellious spirit of the work: “down with your love”, “down with your art”, “down with your system”, “down with your religion” - four cries of four parts.” The poet - "handsome, twenty-two years old" - appears as a lover burning with passion for a woman named Maria, an anarchist who denies the old art and praises the street, the "thirteenth apostle" calling for revolution, and, finally, a man challenging God himself. He puts "nihil" ("nothing") over everything that has been done before him and declares himself new Zarathustra Prophet (no earlier than the 12th century - no later than the 6th century BC). Author of the Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism. According to legend, Zarathustra received it from the god Ahura Mazda. It is in the teachings of Zarathustra that the concepts of hell and heaven, a person’s personal responsibility for his actions and posthumous judgment are first encountered. In Friedrich Nietzsche’s book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” published in 1883, the ancient prophet becomes the bearer of completely different ideas: he predicts the emergence of a superman, free from moral dogmas; Nietzsche believed that it was Zarathustra who created morality, so it must be destroyed in his name. Mayakovsky is interested precisely in Zarathustra in the Nietzschean sense. ⁠ .

Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1914

When was it written?

How is it written?

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Roulette. 1915

DEA/E. LESSING/De Agostini/Getty Images

What influenced her?

In reviews of the poem, the American poet Walt Whitman, whom Mayakovsky allegedly focused on, was often mentioned. Thus, the critic Vasily Lvov-Rogachevsky in his book “Imagism and Its Image Bearers” wrote about Mayakovsky: “This fighter, who grew up on the poems and rhythms of Whitman, is akin to the soul of the city.” Sergei Budantsev also drew a parallel between Mayakovsky and Whitman: “This phrase: “I am all made of meat” brings to mind Walt Whitman: “I am Whitman, I am the cosmos, I am the son of Mantagan, I am from meat" 3 Vladimir Mayakovsky. A cloud in pants. To the 100th anniversary of the first edition. Articles, comments, criticism / Comp. D. Karpov. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2015. P. 106. ⁠ . Chukovsky recalled that the American poet really made a strong impression on Mayakovsky: “As you know, Vladimir Mayakovsky, at the beginning of his literary work, creatively perceived and experienced the poetry of “Leaves of Grass.” He was mainly interested in Whitman’s role as a destroyer of Old Testament literary traditions, cursed by the “many-headed louse” of philistinism.” At the same time, “Mayakovsky was never an imitator of Whitman, Whitman never influenced him as irresistibly and strongly as Byron influenced Mickiewicz or Gogol influenced the early Dostoevsky. By the age of twenty-two, Mayakovsky had already developed into an original poet - with his own theme, with his own voice" 4 Chukovsky K.I. My Whitman. M.: Progress, 1969. P. 279-280. ⁠ .

Khlebnikov could also have influenced the poetics of “Clouds in Pants”. Mayakovsky’s colleague in futurism Kruchenykh did not approve of the first edition of “Clouds in Pants”, and spoke even more harshly about the second publication without cuts, ironically noting that Mayakovsky “on the one hand, added “to the fires of the heart”... and on the other hand, to the wet Khlebnikov: lyubenki, love, heavenly face" and that "we need it future" 5 Nikitaev A. T. Mayakovsky’s poem “Cloud in Pants” in responses to the 1910-20s // Mayakovsky continues: Collection of scientific articles and publications archival materials. Vol. 1. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2003. P. 73. ⁠ . Khlebnikov's influence is palpable in Mayakovsky's neologisms: new shades of meaning arise when various suffixes are added to the base of the word (for example, “millions of huge pure loves / and a million millions of little dirty loves”). At the same time, researchers believe that “Cloud in Pants”, in turn, influenced further creativity Khlebnikov 6 Khardzhiev N., Trenin V. Poetic culture of Mayakovsky. M.: Art, 1970. P. 122. ⁠ .

Velimir Khlebnikov. 1920 Khlebnikov’s poetry significantly influenced “A Cloud in Pants.” “The Cloud,” in turn, influenced Khlebnikov’s further work.

For the first time, excerpts from the poem were published in the almanac “Sagittarius. The first collection" in February 1915. On February 20, Mayakovsky read fragments from “The Cloud” (then called “The Thirteenth Apostle”) at an evening in the artistic basement “Stray Dog”.

In July of the same year, Mayakovsky met Elsa Kagan (Triole) ⁠ , Lilya and Osip Brik. This meeting, which Mayakovsky called “the most joyful date" 7 Mayakovsky V.V. Complete collection works: In 13 volumes. M.: GIHL, 1960. P. 56. ⁠ , directly influenced the fate of “Clouds in Pants.” In her memoirs, Lilya Brik described the deafening impression that the poem made on the listeners that evening: “Mayakovsky never changed his position. He didn't look at anyone. He complained, was indignant, mocked, demanded, became hysterical, paused between parts.<…>Osip Maksimovich was the first to come to his senses. He had no idea! I couldn't think! This is better than anything he knows in poetry!.. Mayakovsky - greatest poet, even if there's nothing else will write" 8 Brik L. From memories // “The name of this topic: love!” Contemporaries about Mayakovsky / Intro. Art. comp., comment. V. A. Katanyan. M.: Friendship of Peoples, 1993. P. 88-89. ⁠ . Having learned that the work had still not been published in full, Osip Brik acted as a philanthropist and the first publisher of the poem, published under the brand of the printing house of the Literacy partnership.

In the first edition (September 1915), the author's intention of “Clouds in Pants” was violated due to the intervention of censorship. All provocative passages were removed from the text. Lilya Brik recalled: “We knew “The Cloud” by heart, we waited for proofs like dates, we wrote down prohibited passages by hand. I was in love with the orange cover, the font, the dedication, and had my copy bound by the best bookbinder in the most expensive leather binding with gold embossing, on a dazzling white moire lining. This had never happened to Mayakovsky, and he was happy immensely" 9 Brik L. From memories // “The name of this topic: love!” Contemporaries about Mayakovsky / Intro. Art. comp., comment. V. A. Katanyan. M.: Friendship of Peoples, 1993. P. 90. ⁠ .

Literary and artistic almanac “Sagittarius”, first collection. Petrograd, 1915. Excerpts from “Clouds in Pants” were published for the first time in this collection.

How was she received?

Writers close to the futurist circle generally spoke with admiration of the work. Thus, Viktor Shklovsky saw the birth of “new beauty” in Mayakovsky’s creation, and the first publisher of the poem, Osip Brik, published “Took. Drum of the Futurists” an enthusiastic review of “Bread!”, in which he contrasted Mayakovsky’s poem with the poetry of the Symbolists, Acmeists and Ego-Futurists: “We ate cakes because they didn’t give us bread.<…>They sucked, chewed, choked, swallowed this sugary food, smearing their lips and souls with molasses. Then they rolled around on anything that was softer: there was no escape from the nausea. Rejoice, shout louder: we have again bread!" 10 Vladimir Mayakovsky. A cloud in pants. To the 100th anniversary of the first edition. Articles, comments, criticism / Comp. D. Karpov. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2015. P. 103-109. C. 91. ⁠ . Nikolai Aseev wrote that “critics have lost their language.” Victor Khovin Viktor Romanovich Khovin (1891-1944) - literary critic and publisher. Khovin was close to the egofuturists of Igor Severyanin’s circle: under his leadership the critical almanac “The Enchanted Wanderer” was published, poetry collection"Flax mimosas." After the revolution, Khovin published the magazine “Book Corner”, where Yuri Tynyanov, Viktor Shklovsky, Vasily Rozanov were published. The latter becomes one of Khovin’s main literary interests - he publishes Rozanov’s books and establishes a circle to study his work. In 1924, the critic emigrated and founded his own publishing house in France. During the war, Hovin was deported to Auschwitz, where he died. ⁠ in the article “Magnificent Surprises” he called the poem “bloody shreds of the heart of modernity.” Linguist and literary critic Grigory Vinokur spoke of Mayakovsky this way: “We admire the burning heart that ignites such lightning!”

However, other assessments were also heard in the futurist camp. Vadim Shershenevich, the future leader of the Imagists, reproached Mayakovsky for his lack of taste, but still called the poem “almost a work of art, which is very rare in these days.” Shershenevich reacted worse to its second edition: in his words, “there was more blasphemy there” than “the power of blasphemy.” Alexey Kruchenykh was disappointed: he thought that the poem “as usual, had a lot of words and little education,” and that Mayakovsky’s love “for pants, skirts, prostitutes, etc.” became completely clear in it. The Kruchenykhs were also irritated by their sentimentality - “mama, nebe (heavenly).”

The poem made a strong impression not only on the circle of futurists, but also on some acmeists and symbolists. Georgy Ivanov noted that the poem, “despite the rudeness, dubious taste and lapses, is still bright and interesting" 11 Nikitaev A. T. Mayakovsky’s poem “A Cloud in Pants” in responses to the 1910-20s // Mayakovsky continues: Collection of scientific articles and publications of archival materials. Vol. 1. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2003. P. 71. ⁠ . Gorky’s reaction is also noteworthy: “He quoted verses from “A Cloud in Pants” and said that he had never read such a conversation with God, except in the Book of Job, and that the Lord God was “great” from Mayakovsky flew in" 12 Katanyan V. A. Mayakovsky: Chronicle of life and activities / Rep. ed. A. E. Parnis. 5th ed., add. M.: Advice. writer, 1985. P. 108. ⁠ . The reaction of Ilya Repin, who heard Mayakovsky reading in Kuokkala in the summer of 1915, was unexpected. The artist did not favor the futurists, but his work amazed 13 Chukovsky K.I. Mayakovsky // Mayakovsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries. M.: Goslitizdat, 1963. P. 131-134. ⁠ :

“Here they both greet each other very kindly, but dryly, and Repin, sitting down at the table, asks Mayakovsky to continue his reading.
Mayakovsky begins his “The Thirteenth Apostle” (as “Cloud in Pants” was then called) with the first line. There is a challenge and combat readiness on his face. His bass gradually turns into a hysterical falsetto:
This is to shoot the rebels again
General Galife is coming!
I expect thunder and lightning from Repin, but suddenly he says in love:
- Bravo, bravo!
And he begins to look at Mayakovsky with increasing tenderness. And after each stanza he repeats:
- That's it! That's it!
Repin is still unable to calm down and finally says to Mayakovsky:
- I want to paint your portrait! Come to my workshop.
This was the nicest thing Repin could say to anyone around him.”

Mayakovsky with Korney Chukovsky and his son Boris. 1915 Mayakovsky wrote most of the poem in the holiday village of Kuokkala near Petrograd (modern Repino), where Chukovsky and Ilya Repin lived at that time

State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky

“A Cloud in Pants” remained one of the most striking and discussed works of the poet not only during his lifetime, but also after his death. The popularity of the poem is evidenced by Mayakovsky’s letter to Gosizdat dated May 30, 1926, which states that 16,000 copies of the third edition of the poem were sold out in just a few months.

Soon after the first publication of the poem, parodies appeared in print with titles like “Soft-boiled Stars” and “Pants Without Clouds.” The poem was translated into foreign languages: the first translation of fragments of “The Cloud” into French was made by Roman Jacobson in January 1917, and already in 1919 a complete translation appeared in Polish language in Rydwan magazine. Mayakovsky actively performed readings of the poem in the USSR and abroad - “The Cloud” was received with delight everywhere and asked to be read as an encore. After the revolution, the poem, finally published without cuts, was mainly interpreted as a reflection of social rebellion. In later interpretations, attention is focused not so much on Mayakovsky’s fight against God, but on the fact that “The Cloud” is, first of all, a love tragedy. For example, Swiss researcher Annick Morar sees the uniqueness of the poem in the fact that it “can be read by people of both revolutionary and lyrical feelings" 14 Morar A. Burning words of the poet-blacksmith Mayakovsky // 1913. The word as such. St. Petersburg: European University, 2014. P. 212. ⁠ .

Where did the name "Cloud in Pants" come from?

Mayakovsky. Kyiv, 1913

State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Kazan, 1914

State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky

What did censorship change besides the title when the poem was first published?

"A Cloud in Pants" suffered significantly from censorship when the first edition was published in September 1915 (circulation of 1,050 copies). Mayakovsky ironized in his autobiography “I Myself” that the words excluded from the text were replaced with dots: “The cloud turned out to be cirrus. The censorship was blowing at him. Six pages of solid dots. Since then I have hated dots. Commas too." Lines that in one way or another mentioned God and other religious images were mercilessly deleted from the poem:

in the choirs of the Archangel's Chorale
God, robbed, comes to punish!
And the street sat down and shouted:
“Let’s go eat!”

Lines calling for revolution were also excluded:

Where people's eyes break short,
the head of the hungry hordes,
in the crown of thorns revolutions
The sixteenth year is coming.

Direct calls for uprising were not ignored either:

Take your hands out of your trousers, you walkers -
take a stone, a knife or a bomb,
and if he has no hands -
I came and fought with my forehead!

Finally, passages in which blasphemous eroticism was particularly noticeable were excluded:

I just ask for your body,
as Christians ask -
"our daily bread
give it to us today.”

The poet's passionate, rebellious final monologue, addressed to God, was completely excluded. In the preface to the second edition of the poem, the author wrote: “It is my duty to restore and publish this book, distorted and despised by pre-revolutionary censorship.” However, even in its mutilated form, the poem made a strong impression - for example, Viktor Shklovsky responded to the first edition of the poem: “Censored cuttings turned into fragments, dimmed, but even in this form fiery, Mayakovsky’s book “A Cloud in Pants” was published. Almost everything that was the political credo of Russian futurism was cut out of the book; what remained were love, anger, the famous street and a new mastery of form.<…>In the poem there is neither gray hair - old rhymes and meters, nor the senile tenderness of former Russian literature - the literature of the powerless of people" 21 Shklovsky V. Mayakovsky’s book “A Cloud in Pants” has been published // Took. Futurist drum. PG: typ. Sokolinsky, 1915. P. 10. ⁠ . When in February 1918 the publishing house “ASIS” (Association of Socialist Art) published the second edition of the poem, without exceptions, in a circulation of 1,500 copies, David Burliuk wrote: “How much more complete, deeper, brighter is this creation of the great poet now in all completeness" 22 Nikitaev A. T. Mayakovsky’s poem “A Cloud in Pants” in responses to the 1910-20s // Mayakovsky continues: Collection of scientific articles and publications of archival materials. Vol. 1. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2003. P. 72. ⁠ .

Printing house of the Literacy partnership. Petrograd, 1915. Cover and design by the author

Publishing house "ASIS". Moscow, 1918

Publishing house "Ogonyok". Moscow, 1925

What are the stylistic and formal innovations of the poem?

Art critic Andrei Shemshurin, poet David Burliuk and Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1914

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Who was the prototype of Mary and why is the poem dedicated to Lilya Brik?

In all likelihood, the heroine of the poem has several prototypes. Although the woman who inspired Mayakovsky to create “Clouds in Pants” is considered to be Maria Denisova, there is evidence that the image of Maria was collective and was originally written from Sonka - Sofia Sergeevna Shamardina. Lilya Brik wrote about this in a letter to Else Triolet Elsa Triolet, before her marriage Ella Kagan (1896-1970), is a writer and translator, the younger sister of Lily Brik. At the age of 22, together with officer Andre Triolet, Kagan left Russia for France - there she began writing books in Russian and French, translate Gogol, Chekhov, Mayakovsky. In 1928, Triolet married the poet Louis Aragon, they joined the Communist Party and together visited the USSR several times. Triolet became the first woman to receive the Prix Goncourt. ⁠ (January 20-26, 1966): “Shamardina is “Sonka.” Volodin is a serious novel. He loved her, but she left him. Her husband (Adamovich) was the head of the Council of People's Commissars of Belarus and in 1937 he shot himself. And Sonya was in the net for 20 years. We - Volodya, Osya, I - are very<были>friendly with them... She is a heroine "Clouds" 28 Brik L. From memories // “The name of this topic: love!” Contemporaries about Mayakovsky / Intro. Art. comp., comment. V. A. Katanyan. M.: Friendship of Peoples, 1993. P. 472. ⁠ . Shamardina, who came from Minsk to Moscow, studied at the Bestuzhev courses, she was looked after by Severyanin, who wrote about her as Sonechka Amardina in the novel in verse “Bells of the Cathedral of Senses” (1923). Mayakovsky and Shamardina met thanks to Korney Chukovsky in 1913, their romance lasted six months.

The main prototype of the beloved in the poem was Maria Denisova, a young artist whom the futurist met in January 1914 in Odessa. According to the memoirs of Vasily Kamensky, who, together with Mayakovsky and Burliuk, took part in the Futurists’ tour of 1913-1914, the poet had strong feelings for the girl: “Having returned home to the hotel, for a long time we could not calm down from the enormous impression that Maria Alexandrovna made on us . Burliuk was thoughtfully silent, watching Volodya, who was walking around the room, not knowing what to do next, where to go with this suddenly surging love.<…>He rushed from corner to corner and repeated questioningly in a low voice: What should I do? What should I do? Write a letter?<…>But isn't it stupid? Should I say everything at once? She will be scared..." 29 Kamensky V. Life with Mayakovsky. Perm: Pushka, 2014. P. 145. ⁠

Mayakovsky turns the staining black coal of life into a diamond
David Burliuk

The dramatic breakup with the girl, who refused Mayakovsky’s proposal and soon married another, is reflected in the plot of the poem:

You came in
sharp as “here”
mucha suede gloves,
said:
“You know -
I'm getting married".

Maria Denisova remained on friendly terms with him until the end of the poet’s life. Finally, Roman Yakobson Roman Osipovich Yakobson (1896-1982) - Russian and American linguist. One of the first to use structural analysis in linguistics and literary criticism, laid the foundation for phonology, studied the theory of translation, and influenced the development of Russian formalism. Known as the founder of many linguistic circles and schools. In 1920 he moved to Czechoslovakia, from there in 1939, due to the German occupation, to Northern Europe. In 1941 he emigrated to the United States, where he taught at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ⁠ suggested that among the prototypes of Maria was the artist Antonina Gumilina, who was in love with Mayakovsky and close to his circle.

Despite the fact that the poem was written before he met Lilya Brik, Mayakovsky decided to dedicate “A Cloud in Pants” to her. Lilya Brik herself explained it this way: “Before publishing the poem, Mayakovsky thought about the dedication. “Lile Yuryevna Brik”, “Lile”. He really liked: “You, Lichika” - a derivative of “Lilechka” and “little face” - and settled on “You, Lilya”. When I asked Mayakovsky how he could write a poem to one woman (Maria) and dedicate it to another (Lila), he replied that while “The Cloud” was being written, he was attracted to several women, that the image of Mary in the poem is least associated with Odessa Maria and that in the fourth chapter it was not Maria before, but Sonka. He remade Sonka into Maria because he wanted the image of a woman to be collective; The name Maria was left by him as it seemed to him the most feminine. This poem was not promised to anyone, and he is honest with himself, dedicating it to me" 30 Brik L. From memories // “The name of this topic: love!” Contemporaries about Mayakovsky / Intro. Art. comp., comment. V. A. Katanyan. M.: Friendship of Peoples, 1993. P. 89. ⁠ .

Sofia Shamardina. 1910–20s. Shamardina helped organize the Futurists' tour in 1913–1914. Lilya Brik pointed out that the image of the heroine of “The Cloud” was originally written with Shamardina

State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky

Maria Denisova. 1910s. Mayakovsky met the artist Denisova during a futurist tour. It is believed that it was Denisova who inspired the poet to create “Clouds in Pants”

State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky

Lilya Brik, 1911. While writing “The Cloud”, Mayakovsky is attracted to several women, but devotes the poem to one - “To you, Lilya”

Alexander Saverkin/TASS

Where do Gioconda, Jack London and Van Houten's cocoa come from in the poem?

Where did the anti-God motives of the poem come from?

The rebellion against God and the angels is based on a literary tradition rooted in the romantic era - images of rebellious Giants who storm the sky, Heine's godless plots, Nietzsche's "anti-Christianity" 31 Weiskopf M. In full logos. Mayakovsky's religion. M., Jerusalem: Salamandra, 1997. P. 45. ⁠ . Philologist Mikhail Weiskopf draws an analogy between the destruction of paradise in “The Cloud” and "Mysteries-buff" The comedy was written in 1918, on the first anniversary October revolution. To tell the story of the revolution, Mayakovsky uses biblical stories, while reinterpreting them satirically. In addition to the author, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Kazimir Malevich participated in the first production of the play. "Mystery-bouffe" is considered the first Soviet play. In 1921, Mayakovsky radically reworked it. ⁠ with an apocrypha about the destruction of the underworld by Christ. The poet, competing with God, claims his place: “Hey, you! / Sky! / Take off your hat! Weiskopf interprets the rebellion against God in the poem as “an eternal story about the beloved and the world, taken from Mayakovsky by the universal Rival" 32 ⁠ . This idea can be correlated with lines from Mayakovsky’s late poem “Letter to Comrade Kostrov from Paris on the Essence of Love” (1928), where instead of God another “heavenly” rival appears, of a lower rank:

Be in love -
it's from the sheets,
insomnia
torn,
break down
jealous of Copernicus,
his,
and not the husband of Marya Ivanna,
counting
his
rival.

The poet takes revenge on God by organizing a revolution against him: “The hero of “Clouds in Pants,” having suffered defeat in the battle for Mary, a woman with the name of the Mother of God, unfolds a program of grandiose revenge" 33 Weiskopf M. In full logos. Mayakovsky's religion. M., Jerusalem: Salamandra, 1997. P. 79. ⁠ . Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov saw in the rebellion against God a reflection of Nietzsche’s ideas about the superman: “The denial of God by the young Mayakovsky was so ardent that it itself turned into a semblance of a new religion, where the place of ancient sacrifice was taken by sacrifice God" 34 Ivanov Vyach. Sun. Mayakovsky for centuries // V. Mayakovsky. Flute-spine: tragedy, poems, poems. 1912-1917. M.: Progress-Pleiad. 2007. P. 276. ⁠ . It is no coincidence that the poet proclaims himself Zarathustra Prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism (no earlier than the 12th - no later than the 6th century BC). The author of the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism is the Avesta. According to legend, Zarathustra received it from the god Ahura Mazda. It is in the teachings of Zarathustra that the concepts of hell and heaven, a person’s personal responsibility for his actions and posthumous judgment are first encountered. In Friedrich Nietzsche’s book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” published in 1883, the ancient prophet becomes the bearer of completely different ideas: he predicts the emergence of a superman, free from moral dogmas; Nietzsche believed that it was Zarathustra who created morality, so it must be destroyed in his name. Mayakovsky is interested precisely in Zarathustra in the Nietzschean sense. ⁠ , referring to Nietzschean teachings and the words of Dostoevsky’s heroes. The passionate atheistic monologue in the poem has been more than once compared to the legend of the Grand Inquisitor from the novel The Brothers Karamazov, where Ivan Karamazov, in an allegorical form, reflects on free will and conscience in Christianity and questions the most important religious postulates. Dostoevsky considered this parable the culmination of the entire novel, and contemporaries called it anarchic and freethinking. There are also references to The Brothers Karamazov in Mayakovsky’s poem “The Spine Flute” (1915):

The ideas, motives and images of “The Cloud” were developed in the poems “Spine Flute”, “War and Peace”, “About This”, “Man”, “At the Top of My Voice”. Thus, the motif of stolen love appears in “Spine Flute” (1915), written after “Cloud in Pants” and dedicated to Lilya Brik:

They clapped
doors.
He came in
the streets are filled with joy.
I
how he split in two with a cry,
He shouted to him:
"Fine,
I'll leave
Fine!
Yours will remain.
Our rags for her,
timid wings in silk would become fat.
Look, it wouldn't float away.
A stone around my neck
hang pearl necklaces on your wife!”

The love tragedy is again associated with atheistic motives: it was God who brought the “cursed” beloved “from the inferno depths” and ordered her to love. The cruel plan of the Lord, whom the poet calls “heavenly Hoffmann”, “the supreme inquisitor”, dooms the hero to mental anguish for the sake of fun. Philologists Anna Sergeeva-Klyatis and Andrei Rossomakhin, in their commentary to the poem, draw attention to the subtext of the image of the beloved, associated with Hoffmann’s famous story “The Sandman” (1816): “The epithets used in the refrain could have been drawn from there: “heavenly Hoffmann” and “you , damned" (in fact, the "heavenly Hoffmann" is the Lord who invents, creates a "cursed" beauty - that is why the censor deleted this epithet" 35 Sergeeva-Klyatis A. Yu., Rossomakhin A. A. “Spine Flute” by Vladimir Mayakovsky: Commentary edition. Articles. Facsimile. St. Petersburg: European University Publishing House, 2015. P. 20. ⁠ . The image of the infernal heroine may also refer to the apocrypha about Adam's first wife Lilith, who did not want to obey her husband and became one of the night demons 36 Sergeeva-Klyatis A. Yu., Rossomakhin A. A. “Spine Flute” by Vladimir Mayakovsky: Commentary edition. Articles. Facsimile. St. Petersburg: European University Publishing House, 2015. P. 25. ⁠ . As in the passionate rebuke in “A Cloud in Pants,” the poet continues to speak to God as equals and ends “Spine Flute” with his own crucifixion:

On holiday, paint today's date.
Get creative
crucifixion equals magic.
See -
nails of words
I am nailed to paper.

The images of the “thirteenth apostle”, “cry-lipped Zarathustra”, “golden-mouthed”, which the poet tries on in “Cloud in Pants”, are replaced by identification with Jesus in the poem “Man” (1918). This work is nothing more than the new Gospel from Mayakovsky, which describes in stages the birth, life, passions, ascension of Mayakovsky, his stay in heaven, and return to earth. It is no coincidence that the cover of the poem (1918 edition) also depicts a crucifixion in the form of a crossing of the words “Mayakovsky” and “Man”. Here the poet is again confronted by a powerful enemy, for whom God himself serves as a cook and for whom Phidias sculpts “lush women”:

Lord of Everything -
my rival
my invincible enemy.
The most delicate peas on his thin stockings.
The smart pants have amazing stripes.
Tie,
spotted ahovo,
from the neck
the belly spread across the globe.

The fragment in which the poet’s beloved comes to bow to his rival and calls his fingers Mayakovsky’s poems echoes Maria’s decision in “A Cloud in Pants” to marry someone else. The motive of sacrifice in the name of “unthinkable love” is realized in the finale of “Man,” when the poet, returning to earth, learns that thousands of years ago he shot himself at the door of his beloved, and she jumped out of the window after him. The poet’s crucifixion in the poem “Spine Flute” may have a similar interpretation: “accept my gift, dear, / I may not think of anything else.”

Weiskopf M. In full logos. Mayakovsky's religion. M., Jerusalem: Salamandra, 1997.

Vladimir Mayakovsky. A cloud in pants. To the 100th anniversary of the first edition. Articles, comments, criticism / Comp. D. Karpov. M.: State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky, 2015. pp. 103–109.

Vladimir Mayakovsky. About it. Facsimile edition. Articles. Comments. St. Petersburg: European University Publishing House, 2014.
Gasparov M. L. Vladimir Mayakovsky // Essays on the history of the language of Russian poetry of the twentieth century: Experiments in describing idiostyles. M.: Heritage, 1995. pp. 363–395.
Evreinov N. N. Demon of theatricality. M., St. Petersburg: Summer Garden, 2002.
Ivanov Vyach. Sun. Mayakovsky for centuries // V. Mayakovsky. Flute-spine: tragedy, poems, poems. 1912–1917. M.: Progress-Pleiad. 2007. pp. 263–312.
Kamensky V. Life with Mayakovsky. Perm: Pushka, 2014.
Cantor K. Thirteenth Apostle. M.: Progress-Tradition, 2008.
Katanyan V. A. Mayakovsky: Chronicle of life and activities / Rep. ed. A. E. Parnis. 5th ed., add. M.: Advice. writer, 1985.
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Mayakovsky V.V. Complete works: In 13 volumes. M.: GIHL, 1960.
Morar A. Burning words of the poet-blacksmith Mayakovsky // 1913. The word as such. St. Petersburg: European University, 2014. pp. 212–221.
Lilya Brik - Elsa Triolet. Unpublished correspondence (1921–1970). M: Lak, 2000.
Nikitaev A. T. Mayakovsky’s poem “A Cloud in Pants” in responses to the 1910s–20s // Mayakovsky continues: Collection of scientific articles and publications of archival materials. Vol. 1. M.: State Museum of V. V. Mayakovsky, 2003. P. 68–79.
Pasternak B.L. Safe-conduct // Pasternak B.L. Complete works: In 11 volumes. M.: Slovo/Slovo, 2004. T. III: Prose. pp. 148–238.
Sergeeva-Klyatis A. Yu., Rossomakhin A. A. “Spine Flute” by Vladimir Mayakovsky: Commentary edition. Articles. Facsimile. St. Petersburg: European University Publishing House, 2015. pp. 7–49.
Khardzhiev N., Trenin V. Poetic culture of Mayakovsky. M.: Art, 1970.
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Chukovsky K.I. My Whitman. M.: Progress, 1969.
Shklovsky V. Mayakovsky’s book “A Cloud in Pants” has been published // Took. Futurist drum. PG: typ. Sokolinsky, 1915. pp. 10–11.
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Yangfeldt B. Love is the heart of everything. V.V. Mayakovsky and L.Yu. Brik: Correspondence, 1915–1930. M.: Book, 1991.
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Full list of references

The original title of the poem - "The Thirteenth Apostle" - was replaced by censorship. Mayakovsky said: “When I came to the censorship with this work, they asked me: “What, did you want to go to hard labor?” I said that in no case, that this in no way suits me. Then they crossed out six pages for me, including the title. It's a question of where the title came from. I was asked how I could combine lyrics and great rudeness. Then I said: “Okay, if you want, I will be like crazy, if you want, I will be the most gentle, not a man, but a cloud in my pants.”

Each part of the poem expresses a specific idea. But the poem itself cannot be strictly divided into chapters in which four cries of “Down!” are consistently expressed. The poem is not at all divided into sections with its “Down!”, but is a complete, passionate lyrical monologue, caused by the tragedy of unrequited love. The experiences of the lyrical hero cover different spheres of life, including those where loveless love, false art, criminal power dominate, and Christian patience is preached. The movement of the lyrical plot of the poem is determined by the hero’s confession, which at times reaches high tragedy (the first publications of excerpts from “The Cloud” had the subtitle “tragedy”).

The first part of the poem is about the poet's tragic unrequited love. It contains jealousy and pain of unprecedented strength, the hero’s nerves rebelled: “like a sick person, a nerve jumped out of bed,” then the nerves “jumped madly, and the nerves’ legs began to give way.”

The author of the poem painfully asks: “Will there be love or not? Which one is big or tiny? The entire chapter is not a treatise on love, but the poet’s experiences spilled out. The chapter reflects the emotions of the lyrical hero: “Hello! Who's speaking? Mother? Mother! Your son is beautifully sick! Mother! His heart is on fire." The love of the lyrical hero of the poem was rejected (It was, it was in Odessa; “I’ll come at four,” said Maria 2. / Eight. / Nine. / Ten... The twelfth hour fell, / like the head of an executed man from the block; You entered, / sharp, like “here!”, / tormenting the suede gloves, / said: “You know - / I’m getting married”), and this leads him to deny love-sweet-voiced chant, because true love is difficult, it is love-suffering.

His ideas about love are defiant, polemically frank and shocking: “Mary! The poet of the sonnet sings Tiana 3, // and I / am all meat, a whole man - // I simply ask for your body, // as Christians ask - // “Our daily bread - / give us this day.” For the lyrical hero, love is equivalent to life itself. Lyricism and rudeness here outwardly contradict each other, but from a psychological point of view, the hero’s reaction is understandable: his rudeness is a reaction to the rejection of his love, it is a defensive reaction.

I put “nihil” over everything that has been done.

Of all types of art, Mayakovsky turns to poetry: it is too divorced from real life and from the real language spoken by the street and the people. The poet exaggerates this gap:

and in the mouths of dead words corpses decompose.

And from the cigarette smoke / the drunken face of the Northerner stretched out like a liqueur glass. How dare you call yourself a poet And, little gray one, chirp like a quail. Today / we must / use brass knuckles / to cut the world into the skull.

The lyrical hero declares his break with previous poets, with “pure poetry”:

From you, who were wet with love, from whom / a tear flowed for a century, I will leave, / I will insert the sun with a monocle into my widely spread eye.

Another “down” of the poem is “down with your system”, your “heroes”: “iron Bismarck”, billionaire Rothschild and the idol of many generations - Napoleon. “I will lead Napoleon on a chain like a pug,” the author declares.

Go! / Let's paint Mondays and Tuesdays with blood during the holidays! Let the earth under the knives remember who it wanted to vulgarize! Earth, / fattened like the mistress whom Rothschild fell in love with! So that the flags flutter in the heat of gunfire, like every decent holiday, raise the lampposts higher, the bloody carcasses of the meadowsweet.

I, ridiculed by today's tribe, like a long obscene joke, see time moving through the mountains, which no one sees. Where the eye of people breaks short, the head of the hungry hordes, the sixteenth year is coming in the crown of thorns of revolutions. And I am your forerunner!

The hero goes through a painful path of ups and downs in the poem. This became possible because his heart is full of the deepest personal experiences. In the fourth chapter of the poem, hopeless longing for his beloved returns. "Maria! Maria! Maria!" - the name sounds hysterically as a refrain, in it - “a born word, equal in greatness to God.” The prayers and confessions are confusing and endless - there is no answer from Mary. And a daring rebellion against the Almighty begins - “a half-educated, tiny little god.” Rebellion against the imperfections of earthly relationships and feelings:

Why didn’t you come up with a way to kiss, kiss, kiss without pain?!

I thought - you are an all-powerful god, but you are a half-educated, tiny god. You see, I bend down, / from behind my boot I take out a shoe knife. Winged scoundrels! / Cuddle in paradise! Ruffle your feathers in frightened shaking! I will open you, smelling of incense, from here to Alaska! ...Hey you! Sky! / Take off your hat! I'm coming! Deaf. The universe sleeps with its huge ear resting on its paw with pincers of stars.

Features of Mayakovsky's poetics

Here, / do you want / to take out a whole blooming grove / from your right eye?!

the reader doesn’t care anymore: if you want it, take it out; if you don’t want it, no. You won't get through to the reader anymore. He became numb" 5 . In his extravagance, Mayakovsky is sometimes monotonous and therefore few people love his poetry.

But now, after the recent heated debate about Mayakovsky, the attempts of some critics to throw Mayakovsky himself off the ship of modernity, it is hardly worth proving that Mayakovsky is a unique, original poet. This is a poet of the street and at the same time a subtle, easily vulnerable lyricist. At one time (in 1921) K.I. Chukovsky wrote an article about the poetry of A. Akhmatova and V. Mayakovsky - the “quiet” poetry of one and the “loud” poetry of the other poet. It is quite obvious that the poems of these poets are not similar, even polar opposites. Who does K.I prefer? Chukovsky? The critic not only contrasts the poems of the two poets, but also brings them together, because they are united by the presence of poetry in them: “To my surprise, I love both equally: Akhmatova and Mayakovsky, for me they are both mine. For me there is no question: Akhmatova or Mayakovsky? I love both that cultured, quiet, old Rus' that Akhmatova embodies, and that plebeian, stormy, square, drum-bravura Russia that Mayakovsky embodies. For me, these two elements do not exclude, but complement one another, they are both equally necessary” 6.

“Cloud in Pants” is a bright, shocking and very frank poem by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. This is the author’s very first major work, on which he worked for a whole year. The work is of a sharp revolutionary nature and may interest the reader just by its ambiguous title. The poet put his whole soul into its creation and endowed the lyrical hero with traits that are also inherent in himself.

At the beginning of the work, Mayakovsky describes how painfully the hero waits for his beloved, he is so looking forward to this meeting that even “my nerves give way!” His thoughts do not obey him, and he is unable to control himself; it begins to seem to him that even the raindrops are grimacing, as if they are mocking him. An uncontrollable intensity of emotions rages inside him, time passes for an unimaginably long time, so long that he ceases to feel it, and he just wants to scream.

The twelfth hour has fallen,
like the head of an executed man from the scaffold

The long-awaited meeting with his beloved fleetingly devastates his heart, because the hero learns that Maria will soon get married. In one moment, the girl was able to extinguish the majestic fire of emotions in his chest. Outwardly, it seems that he does not feel anything, but a hole has formed in his soul, he calls it “the pulse of a dead man”

The young man in love does not want to forget Mary, he says that he is afraid to forget her name, just as the poet is afraid to forget a word equal in greatness to God. So he becomes disillusioned with love and turns to politics.

Further, historical figures, the political system and the mediocre driven crowd are ridiculed, the hero is convinced that all these pathetic people do not know how to truly love, they confuse love with dirt and lust. He wants to forget himself in the wrath of reproof, but he still steps on something that hurts.

In the end, the lyrical hero becomes disillusioned with God, the Creator is powerless for him, even he cannot understand him, see how his heart bleeds, how despair, disappointment and loneliness overtake him.

I thought you were an all-powerful little god, but you’re a dropout, a tiny little god

But thoughts of Mary still continue to poison his consciousness, he screams about his love, although he already understands that this is in vain, since along with his feelings, all the foundations of his worldview that restrained him have collapsed. The hero dreams of revolution in all spheres of life and is ready to devote himself entirely to the restructuring of all living things.

Meaning of the name

Mayakovsky gave the title “Cloud in Pants” to the poem after censorship rejected the original one. At first the work had the title “The Thirteenth Apostle,” but, not wanting to end up in hard labor, the author changed it. “A Cloud in Pants” is a combination of lightness and romance with rudeness and everyday aspects of life; the poet brilliantly combined incompatible characters and images.

Want to -
I'll be crazy about meat
- and, like the sky, changing tones -
want to -

I will be impeccably gentle,
not a man, but a cloud in his pants!

A strong and self-confident man, under the influence of painful emotions and a warm feeling of love, instantly becomes soft and weightless, light and shapeless. Outwardly, he is still stern and calm; Mayakovsky cites these qualities inherent in the male sex in comparison with rough pants. The cloud they wear is a reflection inner world a lyrical hero who is in limbo. He is gentle and sensitive, he does not have the strength to change what happens around him.

Composition and genre

We have long determined the genre of the work “Cloud in Pants” and are convinced that it is a poem. But it will also be important to know that it has the shape of a tetraptych.
A tetraptych is a work of art that contains 4 parts, united by one plot and semantic line.

The poem consists of a preface, in which the author lays out the main ideological idea of the work, and four parts. Each part identifies the main topics that will be discussed. The main idea is the so-called four cries of the hero: “Down with your love, art, system, religion!” - this is precisely the slogan that the author places in the preface. The beginning of the poem is very lyrical, it tells us about emotional experiences hero, it is from there that we learn about his real feelings for Maria.

In the second part of the poem we will talk about poetry and creativity, which is dying in bourgeois society, but the author believes that after the revolution, poets will be able to save art.
In the third and fourth parts, Mayakovsky expresses his protest against the entire old system; he finds it precisely as the cause of all human troubles.

The image of a lyrical hero

The hero in the poem “Cloud in Pants” is full of real feelings and experiences of the author himself. Mayakovsky allows him to adopt many of his features; it turns out that the poet is trying to express his own “I” in this way. The narrator is presented to us as romantic and sensitive, gentle and vulnerable, but at the same time he is a strong man who has his own personal and confident position. The image is built on a certain contrast that characterizes him as a bright and emotional person who is not going to tolerate human insignificance, he will persistently scream and fight for happiness and a better future not only for himself, but also for others. He intends to lead them with him, staining their hearts with the blood of his heart, which aches for the fate of the fatherland.

But his image cannot be called exclusively rebellious, because he is also driven by ardent feelings for his beloved girl, for life, he experiences a huge internal explosion that hurts him to the core. This means that the hero knows how to truly love, and loves like no one else around him.

Characteristics of the main characters

In the poem “Cloud in Pants” there are not many active characters, they are unique, the images of some of them can even be called dual. Mayakovsky calls the lyrical heroine Maria for a reason. In the fourth chapter, there is an unobtrusive comparison of her image with the biblical images of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, that is, the name of the narrator’s beloved personifies divine, unearthly love. But the girl rejects the hero, she makes his soul suffer, scream and beg for love, and, in fact, betrays him, sells him, like Judas. For her, money plays an important role, she understands that the hero will not be able to bestow wealth on her, therefore, she exchanges real feelings for material wealth.

Nothing if for now
you instead of the chic Parisian dresses
dressed in tobacco smoke

This feature of the image presentation also concerns the image of God in the poem. At the very beginning, the hero asks him for help, he considers him majestic, capable of giving him the right to mutual love. But it turns out that the heavens betray him, and the hero becomes disappointed in their powers. The Creator is no longer as powerful and omnipotent as before.

Religious allusions

Probably, by ironizing biblical names and heroes, the author expresses his anti-clerical protest, which was characteristic of him. He skillfully introduces political trends of modern times into his love experiences, showing the futility of hopes for heavenly powers. Alas, says the poet, let’s be realistic: in matters of the heart, and in any other matters, God is not our helper, and all the stories about him are fairy tales. For example, Mayakovsky uses the biblical name Maria, but does not speak about the feat of the mother and beloved of Christ, not about devotion, not about sorrow, but turns our established associations upside down. Now Maria is a corrupt girl who is ready to sell her lover for a French dress. This is the essence of a fatal and vicious woman in life, and the author does not believe in the correction of Magdalene on the pages of the book.

Subjects

Of course, the first and most main theme Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" is the theme of unrequited and painful love. It directly intersects with other themes that the author examines in the work: loneliness, rejection of morality and politics, and even atheism. The lyrical hero suffers from unrequited love, and this torment leads him to renounce his own thoughts and beliefs.

In the third part of the poem, the topic of disagreement with the political system is raised, the hero literally shouts “Down with your system!” The narrator acutely feels how a mass of gray and very similar people with their own hands gives rise to wars and violence, but he is opposed to this world, in his mind there is a struggle with everything that surrounds him.

The crisis of religion at the beginning of the 20th century also took its place of honor in the lyrics of the Russian modernist. He ironically reduces the image of God, reducing his fictitious power to the point of absurdity. The hero now believes only in his own strength and is not going to humble himself.

The poet also raises the topic of art, declaring his aesthetic position: he wants to become the voice of the street, and not the elites with their roses and nightingales. There are more important problems in the new century. He glorifies the people and their proletarian essence, but refuses to recognize the classics (Homer, Goethe) as authority: their time has passed. “I know - the nail in my boot is more nightmarish than Goethe’s fantasy” - the author wants to say that the pressing, real problems of hard workers on the streets are much more important than abstract philosophical questions. He will describe them.

The theme of revolution cannot go unnoticed; the author calls himself its forerunner. He “crucified himself on the cross” in order to cleanse his soul with the blood of suffering and take it in his hands as a banner. He intends to do the same with the readers of the poem, so that they meet the revolution with purified thoughts.

It can be noted that in each part of the poem the leading theme is love, but it is also complemented by other thoughts. First, the lyrical hero is disappointed in his beloved, then in the art around him, then he loses faith in power and, finally, in religion. Thus, the main theme of the poem “Cloud in Pants” is still disappointment. The poet is tired of his surroundings and protests against it, criticizing all spheres of existence. Perhaps the love line was generally invented to divert the eyes of the censors.

What is the meaning of the work?

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky calls on disadvantaged and poor people to persistently and persistently demand and achieve their happiness right here and now. He is ready to sing and support protest, renouncing bourgeois classical poetry. The author completely rejects the old foundations, which cannot allow a person to live with dignity and freedom, he opposes the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie, anticipates the onset of the revolution and is ready to bring its ideas to the masses. The feelings and experiences of the lyrical hero are comparable to the experiences of the people, and all of them are summarized in one image. Love, art, political system and religion must be completely different, the poet does not accept what is happening now (happened then), he is sure that the proletarians are degrading and humiliating themselves before life due to the fault of incorrect art, false religion and an unjust state regime. However, Mayakovsky does not lose faith and hope for a bright future; he is a supporter of the revolution in all areas and directions. The author is convinced that if you mercilessly destroy the wretched old, you can create a bright and completely new one.

The originality of the poem

We can trace the originality and originality of the poem “Cloud in Pants” at the very beginning, when we find out what it is called. Few people will be able to immediately and absolutely accurately guess what will be discussed without reading the text, but simply by looking at its title. Of course, this gives the work a certain elegance and sets it apart from others; one might say that it itself makes one pay attention to itself.

The size and composition of the poem were not typical for Russian literature. The famous “ladder” was invented in Italy by the founder of futurism, Filippo Marinetti. He also developed the ideological and thematic content of the new movement, its manifesto and aesthetic principles. It is known that Mayakovsky was an ardent admirer of his talent, so he adopted his literary style. However, Marinetti was more of a theorist rather than a practitioner, and it was the Russian poet who managed to bring his ideas to perfection. Thus, in the poem “Cloud in Pants” the author embodied the revolutionary spirit of modernism and discovered new page in Russian art, using a new size, innovative rhythm, and a variety of occasionalisms. We have a whole one.

Also, what is unusual and unexpected for Mayakovsky’s contemporaries and for us is the way the author speaks about God and religion. Few people would have dared to speak about it like that at that time, calling the Creator a “dropout” and a “tiny little god.”

Initially, the poem was published with losses; the censor removed several pages from it. Only in Moscow at the beginning of 1918, “The Cloud in Pants” was completely restored and released under Mayakovsky’s own publishing house, and at the very beginning he indicated that the first title, “The Thirteenth Apostle,” had been crossed out by censorship, but he would not return it. Such an adventurous creation story also gives the work revolutionary romance.

Issues

In the poem “A Cloud in Pants” the main problem is the suffering of the people in the world created by the capitalists. Throughout the entire work, Mayakovsky is surprised by the lifestyle of his contemporaries. All images seem low and faceless against the background of the lyrical hero. The feelings that boil within him confidently summarize the severity of the social conflict.

The poem also deals with the problem of dealing with personal internal experiences. The torment of the soul is associated with unrealistic lyrical dreams, the clash of tenderness that was brought up in the heart, and the wretched, unfair reality, where no one values tenderness. In a second, the hero is deprived of his last hope for mutual feelings, and this is nothing more than complete devastation, and therefore internal death.

Against the backdrop of such acute experiences, new, no less exciting problems arise. The catastrophe that happened to the hero pushes him to think about the problem of the immorality of society and subsequently he rejects morality.

The problem of fake art also worries him. Creators do not care about how their works will influence people; they care about canons and grace. The poet cannot understand the hypocritical rules; questions about the poet's purpose torment and torment him. He finds a solution in complete frankness, all that remains is “only solid lips.”

The author also does not ignore political stagnation. An unjust government, fixated only on its own profit, cannot be useful for society, cannot serve its development.

And, of course, he is concerned about the problem of a religious nature. He believes that the fairy tale about God only stupefies the people, leads them to regression, but does not help them at all on the path to self-improvement and development.

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