“Could you?” V. Mayakovsky. “languishing in the cramped limit

“Could you?” Vladimir Mayakovsky

I immediately lubricated everyday life card,
splashing paint from a glass;
I showed jelly on a dish
slanting cheekbones of the ocean.
On the scales tin fish
I read the calls of new lips.
And you
play nocturne
could
on the drainpipe flute?

Analysis of Mayakovsky's poem “Could you?”

The poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky is particularly sharp and direct. However, in the literary heritage of this author there are sometimes works that have amazing imagery, metaphor and are not devoid of a kind of romance. These, in particular, include the poem “Could You?”, written in 1913 and conveying the author’s special, carefree and upbeat mood.

In a few succinct phrases, Vladimir Mayakovsky paints a gray and mundane picture of an ordinary meal with a classic set of dishes. However, as if by magic, she is transformed, since the poet is able to see “slanting cheekbones of the ocean” in the banal jelly. His desire to embellish the world is so great that all kinds of objects that are at hand are used.

Thus, succumbing to a romantic mood, the poet declares from the very first line that he “immediately blurred the map of everyday life,” hinting that he is annoyed by the routine in everything, even if we are talking about an ordinary dinner. Next, the poet allows himself a clearly hooligan prank, “splashing paint from a glass.” A spilled drink allows Vladimir Mayakovsky, if not to transform the world around him, then at least to make some changes to it, to enliven the dull tablescape and try to find in it grains of joy, celebration, and some kind of magical charm.

His romantic impulse is so swift and exciting that even in ordinary fish scales the poet sees “the calls of new lips.” Every thing and every dish is literally transformed under the gaze of the author, acquiring new meaning and revealing their secrets. And in this rapid comprehension of a new, still unknown world, which is hidden under the mask of dullness and indifference, Vladimir Mayakovsky sees an amazing harmony that fills his heart with joy and a certain childish delight. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in a burst of inspiration, he turns to an unknown interlocutor, or, more precisely, to all readers with the question of whether they could play a nocturne on the “drainpipe flute”?

The question itself sounds very poetic, sublime and romantic. However, the author is convinced that the people around him will understand what he means. we're talking about. After all, it is enough just to take a closer look at the objects around us to see the mysterious charm in them. The main thing is to want in your soul to transform this gray and inconspicuous world, consisting of banalities and conventions. And this is exactly what the poet proposes to do in the hope that in this way he will be able to find like-minded people who, as he assumes, will appreciate that amazing gift, which he throws at their feet. It lies in the ability to transform the world in accordance with your desires and feelings, to see not only the outer shell of things, but also their essence, to unravel their secrets and read them like a fascinating book.

However, despite the fact that the poem “Could You?” written in a very sublime major key, the loneliness from which the poet suffers comes through in bright and figurative phrases. He cannot find understanding among the people around him, so he comes up with fun in the form of searching for non-existent images. Dressed in poetic lines, they become accessible to each of us and seem to bring us closer to the poet, causing some surprise. After all, it is unlikely that in the bustle of everyday life it would occur to anyone to look for something sublime and romantic among the ordinary and prosaic. However, Vladimir Mayakovsky makes you reconsider your attitude to little things, which allows people to become happier, kinder and more optimistic.

“I immediately blurred the map of everyday life...” (According to the lyrics of V. Mayakovsky.)

“I immediately blurred the map of everyday life...”
(based on Mayakovsky's lyrics)

Why are you wearing a yellow sweater?
- So as not to resemble you.
V. Kamensky. The youth of Mayakovsky.

In 1912, the futurists’ almanac “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” published poems by V. Mayakovsky
"Night" and "Morning". This is how a young and original poet declared himself - a poet who was destined for a long and difficult creative life.
fate, and not only lifelong, but also posthumous, for the author’s works were repeatedly evaluated and revalued
criticism and readers.
The early period of the poet’s work is represented by many discoveries in the field of versification. Almost immediately
Having abandoned attempts at literary imitation, Mayakovsky literally burst into Russian poetry of the early 20th century - poetry
where such luminaries as Blok, A. Bely, Gumilev, Akhmatova, Bryusov rightfully shone. His poems were strikingly different from
what was generally considered good poetry, but he quickly came into his own and asserted his creative individuality,
the right to be Mayakovsky. Its dawn, according to A. Akhmatova, was stormy: denying “classical boredom,” the poet
proposed new, revolutionary art, and in his own person - its representative. Undoubtedly, much in the early work
Mayakovsky is associated with such an artistic movement as futurism, but at the same time the ideas and poetic means of their
embodiments in works
the author's ideas were much broader than traditional futuristic ideas. The originality of Mayakovsky's early lyrics is primarily due to
just his personality, his bright talent, his views and beliefs.
Perhaps the main theme of this period is the theme of the poet’s tragic loneliness:
“I am alone, like the last eye of a man going to the blind.”
The reason for this is that there are “no people” around. There is a crowd, a mass, well-fed, chewing, looking “as an oyster from the shell of things.”
People have disappeared, and therefore the hero is ready to kiss the “smart face of the tram” - in order to forget those around him:
“Unnecessary, like a runny nose, and sober, like Narzan.”
The hero is lonely, he may be alone in this world. This is probably where the egocentric pathos of many of his poems comes from. "To myself,
to my beloved, the author dedicates these lines”, “I”, “A few words about myself”, “Me and Napoleon”, “Vladimir Mayakovsky” -
These are the titles of his poems of that time. “I” is the word that determines the dynamics of poetic action: “I,
glorifying machines and England." The poet comes into this world to glorify himself:
Enormous the world with the power of voice,
I'm coming - beautiful,
twenty-two years old.
He addresses the people of the future:
“Slayetps mskhya!” -
I bequeath to you an orchard
of your great soul.
In this emphasized egocentrism is the tendency toward social shocking characteristic of Mayakovsky's poetry. "I have costumes
there never was. There were two blouses of the most vile kind... I took a piece of yellow ribbon from my sister. Tied up. Furor" - these are
the antics of Mayakovsky the hooligan. And yet - it’s notorious

I love watching children die.
What is behind this kind of action? The author's categorical rejection of bourgeois culture, youthful nihilism and,
perhaps the spiritual vulnerability of the poet himself. Behind his role as a hooligan, Mayakovsky hid a subtle soul seeking love and
loving, protecting her from those who “understand nothing.”
Mayakovsky, as he writes about himself, is “a solid heart.” Already in the early poems he appears doomed to burn
“the unburnable fire of unimaginable love.” Premonition of love, its expectation - “Will there be love or not? Which one is big or
tiny? - this is what fills the hero’s monologues. His soul is looking for love, and therefore he writes: “To himself, his beloved, he dedicates these
lines by the author.” His feeling remains unclaimed:
Where can I find a loved one, one like me?
The poet painfully experiences his loneliness; for him the burden of “unspent springs” is simply unbearable:
Unbearable not just for a psycho, but literally.
The beloved woman, having appeared once, forever fills the hero’s existence with meaning. But his happiness is painful and
short-lived: separations and betrayals are constant companions of love; however, despite this, the hero finds strength in himself
say:
Give me at least
cover with the last tenderness
your leaving step.
It is significant that in Mayakovsky’s early poetry there are practically no landscape descriptions. In his autobiography “I Myself,” the poet
This is how he explains his “disdain” for the topic of nature: “After electricity, I completely gave up being interested in nature.
An unimproved thing." Her place in her work is firmly occupied by the urban landscape: houses, streets, cars. Often
This kind of description is deliberately naturalistic; the poet seems to be setting out to depict the ugly “things of the century.”
“Beauty,” poetic qualities that the author rejects. This is illustrated, for example, by the following lines:
The street has sunk in like a syphilitic nose. The river is voluptuousness spread into drool. Throwing away the laundry to the last leaf,
the gardens fell obscenely in June.
The world around us causes sharp rejection and protest on the part of the author. Its apotheosis can be considered the poem “Cloud in
pants." It consists of four parts, each of which exposes some aspect of reality. Hero
proclaims: “Down with your love, down with your art, down with your religion, down with your system!” By scale, by depth
artistic generalization, in terms of the range of poetic means, this poem is, in my opinion, one of the best
works of Mayakovsky.
The poet's artistic means and linguistic techniques are distinguished by emphasized naturalism and prosaism. He writes: “spitting stars”
- about those very stars that, according to Kant, fill the human soul with “reverence and admiration.” He states:
I know - the nail in my boot is more nightmarish than Goethe's fantasy. In these lines - the focus of the whole world on the individual
poet, the juxtaposition of the base and the sublime, the poetic and the prosaic.
In his early lyrics, Mayakovsky pays tribute to experimentation, the search for new forms, and word creation. And you need to be able to see beyond
an abundance of complex metaphors, hyperboles, neologisms, unusual syntactic constructions deep meaning text.
One of the author’s early poems is “Could You?”
I immediately smeared the map of everyday life by splashing paint from a glass;
I showed jelly on a dish
slanting cheekbones of the ocean.
On the scales of a tin fish
I read the calls of new lips.
And you
could play a nocturne
on the drainpipe flute?
What is hidden in these lines? Maybe they were written by a person who lacks the immensity of love and the ocean? May be,
are they about the artist’s right to transform everyday life, to see poetry where, it would seem, it has no place at all? About what's only
can a real artist play on a drainpipe?
The poet offers us his vision of the world and his ways of realizing it. Rejecting traditional forms of poetry, Mayakovsky
doomed himself to difficult fate an experimenter, a person who will not be understood by many. But his path is the path without
which modern art would be incomplete, somewhat defective:
Listen!
After all, if the stars light up -
Does that mean anyone needs this?

Parody with lyrical digressions...

I have a poem “Two Poets” (the first one I wrote
after registering on the website "Poems.ru": ).

It’s not at all about Mayakovsky being bad and Yesenin being good,
it's about which of these two authors I personally like. But periodically
there are “especially gifted” who are trying to prove that “poets
you can’t compare” and “everyone chooses for themselves whose work is closer to them.”
What I actually wrote about my choice doesn’t reach them...

But now we’re talking about something a little different... When will I once again
they are trying to prove that Mayakovsky is also a lyricist, they often quote
the line about the "flute of drainpipes." Here is the verse in full:

V.V. Mayakovsky, “Could you?”

I immediately blurred the map of everyday life,
splashing paint from a glass;
I showed jelly on a dish
slanting cheekbones of the ocean.
On the scales of a tin fish
I read the calls of new lips.
And you
play nocturne
could
on the drainpipe flute?

If you don’t think about the text, it seems beautiful. If you don't think about it...
Although now many people write like this - without thinking: they string epithet upon epithet,
they pile metaphor upon metaphor to make it look more pompous and colorful,
but they don’t even think about what all these epithets and metaphors mean...

But any musician will confirm to you that the instrument is sacred!
And it's not just about hygiene. The tool is the link between
him and his music! What the hell are flutes made from drainpipes?
Have you ever looked closely at these pipes? In short, a parody:

N. A. Losev, “I couldn’t...”

All the dogs scoured them;
Half a century in dust and dirt;
And even trash cans
All these pipes are much cleaner;
But Vova blew into the bends of the pipes,
without wiping your rusty lips...
And you
put it in your mouth
could
One of the drainpipes?

P.S. But in general, this poem by Mayakovsky is fertile ground
for parodists. For example, I give anyone a promising gift
start:

I immediately blurred the map of everyday life,
“waving” two hundred grams from a glass...

If you continue this topic (or come up with something of your own), please post it later
link, let's laugh together...)))

Reviews

You still have simple "everyday"
Two hundred grams is enough for you.
And here “jelly” walks through life -
I want to punch you in the face!

And with a trumpet, or a well-aimed rhyme,
Yes, whatever you have to! There's grief there
Where someone will let “jelly” into their heart,
He would walk... along the wires...

I would lick and inhale the beauty of the pipes,
He did not defile life with himself,
Didn’t betray naive lips -
Since he loves the spirit of garbage dumps!

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Read the verse “Could You?” Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich can be found on the website. Written in the early period of creativity (1913), the poem reflects the position of the author, who seeks to declare a new word in art. Although the theme is not new: the deep division between the poet and the crowd, the confrontation between the layman and the creator, Mayakovsky reveals it using innovative methods, a fresh form, offering his bright, imaginative perception of the world and comparing it with the dull everyday.

Poem "Could You?" - a challenge to everything familiar, monotonous like “everyday”, repeating at regular intervals. However, this gray everyday day can be changed in the poet’s imagination just like the usual contours geographical map. They can be erased, blurred, smeared if you splash another paint from a glass onto the card. In the perception of the down-to-earth man in the street, jelly is a trembling mass on a porcelain dish; the poet’s eye saw on it “the slanting cheekbones of the ocean,” and fish scales for him are “the call of new lips.” The juxtaposition is unexpected and non-standard. The poet avoids templates, which in his perception are the personification of everything inert, mercantile and grounded. But to see this, you need to be able to notice poetry in what is ordinary and everyday and be surprised at what will leave another indifferent. Only a romantic can hear the sounds of a flute in the simple murmur of a drainpipe, and a poet, using verbal forms, can play a nocturne on it.

In search of new futuristic forms, Mayakovsky created works that met with mixed reviews from his contemporaries. But according to Pasternak, the poet cannot be denied skill and “proud democracy.” The text of Mayakovsky's poem "Could You?" You can download it in its entirety on the website or study it online during a literature lesson in the classroom.

Could you?

I immediately blurred the map of everyday life
splashing paint from a glass;
I showed jelly on a dish
slanting cheekbones of the ocean.
On the scales of a tin fish
I read the calls of new lips.
And you
play nocturne
could
on the drainpipe flute?

V. Mayakovsky

What is this? I often had a question. And one day I suddenly saw the plot.

Young man. In love. Unrequited. There are options here though. But let's look at this one for now.
There is no hope. I'm tired of everything. This is the map of everyday life.
Where to go? To a restaurant, probably.
There is a dish of jelly and paint in a glass.
After such paint, on a dish of jelly you can easily see either slanting or other cheekbones. Even the ocean. Ocean. Romance. Sail. Element. Eternity. And what about some eccentric girl?

By the way, in those days a restaurant menu was also called a map.

From the window on the opposite building you can see a huge sign in the shape of a tin fish. Even if the abyrvalg is in this building. Doesn't matter. And the fish are straight from that same ocean.

The poet is in love. The scales of a fish appear as inviting lips. There are many of them. But it looks great.
And they call it. Name! Here you can add more paint.

IN drainpipes the rain is noisy. And the poet wants to hear a nocturne. And he hears him. This is what to play.

Could you? - title of the poem.

The poet did it.

And I would like to. Maybe I can someday.

And another option - mutual love - perhaps next time.

Reviews

Good afternoon
Great schedule! I love the work of V.V. Mayakovsky, but this work Especially catchy!
I, of course, lean more towards the second option, because all such lyrics are from unrequited love.
Thank you!

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