There are poets who seem to be open to love, and all of their work is literally permeated with this wonderful feeling. These are Pushkin, Akhmatova, Blok, Tsvetaeva and many others. And there are those who are hard to imagine in love. And first of all, Vladimir Mayakovsky comes to mind. Poems about love in his work, at first glance, seem completely inappropriate, because he is usually perceived as a singer of the revolution. Is this so, let's try to find out, taking a closer look at the poet.
Mayakovsky - the beginning of the creative path
The birthplace of the poet is Georgia. Parents came from a noble family, although his father served as a simple forester. The sudden death of a breadwinner forces the family to move to Moscow. There Mayakovsky entered the gymnasium, but two years later he was expelled for non-payment of studies, and took up revolutionary activities. He was arrested several times and spent almost a year in the cell of Butyrka prison. This happened in 1909. Then for the first time he began to try to write poetry, absolutely terrible, according to him. However, it was this year that Mayakovsky, whose love lyrics, poems and famous poems were still ahead, considered the beginning of his poetic career.
Poet of revolution
It cannot be said that the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky was completely devoted to the revolution. Everything is far from so simple. The poet unconditionally accepted it, was an active participant in those events, and many of his works were indeed devoted to the October Revolution. He practically deified her, believed in the ideals that she carried, and defended her. Undoubtedly, he was the mouthpiece of the revolution, and his poems - a kind of agitation.
Love in the life of Mayakovsky
Deep emotionality is inherent in all creative people. Vladimir Mayakovsky was no exception. The theme of love goes through all his work. Outwardly rude, in fact, the poet was a very vulnerable person, a hero of a rather lyrical nature. And love in Mayakovsky’s life and work was far from last. He, broad-hearted, knew how to instantly fall in love, and not for a short time, but for a long time. But the poet was unlucky in love. All relations ended tragically, and the last love in his life led to suicide.
Addressees of Mayakovsky's love lyrics
In the life of the poet there were four women whom he loved unconditionally. Mayakovsky’s love lyrics are primarily associated with them. Who are they, the poet’s muses, to whom he dedicated his poems?
Maria Denisova is the first with whom Mayakovsky's love lyrics are associated. He fell in love with her in Odessa, in 1914, and devoted the poem "Cloud in Pants" to the girl. It was an unrequited love and the first strong feeling of the poet. Therefore, the poem turned out to be so overwhelmingly honest. This is a real cry of a lover, who is waiting for her beloved girl for several painful hours, and she comes only to inform that she is marrying a better man.
Tatyana Alekseevna Yakovleva. The poet met her in October 1928 in Paris. The meeting ended with an instant love for each other. A young immigrant and tall, under two meters tall Mayakovsky, were a wonderful couple. He devoted two of his poems to her - “Letter to Comrade Kostrov ...” and “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva”.
In December, the poet leaves for Moscow, but in February 1929 he returned to France again. His feelings for Yakovleva were so strong and serious that he proposed to her, but received neither refusal nor consent.
Relations with Tatyana ended tragically. Planning to come again in the fall, Mayakovsky could not do this because of problems with his visa. Moreover, he suddenly finds out that his love is getting married in Paris. The poet was so shocked by this news that he said that if he no longer saw Tatyana, he would shoot himself.
And then again the search began for that one devoted love. The poet began to seek solace from other women.
Mayakovsky’s last love
Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya - theater actress. Mayakovsky met her in 1929 through Osip Brik. This was done not by chance, in the hope that a charming girl would interest the poet and distract from the tragic events associated with Yakovleva. The calculation turned out to be correct. Mayakovsky was seriously carried away by Polonskaya, so much so that he began to demand from her a break with her husband. And she, loving the poet, could not start a conversation with her husband, realizing what a blow this would be for him. And Polonskaya’s husband completely believed in his wife’s loyalty.
It was a painful love for both. Mayakovsky was getting more nervous every day, and she was still delaying the explanation with her husband. April 14, 1930 they met for the last time. Polonskaya claims that there was no talk of a break, the poet again asked her to leave her husband and leave the theater. A minute after her departure, already on the stairs, Polonskaya heard a shot. Returning to the poet’s apartment, she found him dying. So tragically ended the last love and life of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Complex relationship: Lilya Brik
This woman, without exaggeration, occupied the main place in the heart of the poet. She is his strongest and "sickest" love. Almost all of Mayakovsky’s love lyrics after 1915 are dedicated to her.
The meeting with her took place a year after the breakdown in relations with Denisova. Mayakovsky was initially carried away by Lily's younger sister, and at the first meeting she mistook her for her governess as her lover. Later, the official acquaintance of Lily and Osip Brik with the poet took place. They were struck by his poems, and he instantly fell in love with this extraordinary woman.
Their relationship was strange and incomprehensible to others. Lily's husband had a connection on the side, and did not have a physical attraction to his wife, but in his own way he loved her very much. Lily adored her husband, and when she was once asked whether she would still choose Mayakovsky or Brik, she answered without hesitation that she was her husband. But the poet was extremely dear to her. These strange relationships lasted 15 years, until the death of Mayakovsky.
Features of Mayakovsky’s love lyrics
For a poet, love is one of the most important feelings in the world. He believed that this is the foundation, the heart of everything. If it stops, the body will die. So, even without love, a person cannot feel truly alive. Mayakovsky’s love lyrics are special in that the poet refused to believe in the fragility of this feeling. He himself loves faithfully and wants to tell the whole world about it, to share his thoughts and concerns. Yes, it is not interesting to ordinary people.
The most striking features of the poet’s lyrics are visible in his poem “I Love”, dedicated to Lily Brik.
Love for Mayakovsky is a deep personal experience, and not an established opinion of her. Each person has this feeling from birth, but the townsfolk, who value comfort and prosperity more in life, quickly lose their love. She, according to the poet, "gets crowded" with them.
A feature of the poet’s love lyrics is his conviction that if a person loves someone, he must completely follow the chosen one, always and in everything support, even if the beloved is wrong. According to Mayakovsky, love is disinterested, she is not afraid of quarrels and distance.
The poet is a maximalist in everything, so his love does not know half tones. She knows no peace, and the author writes about this in her last poem "Unfinished": "... I hope that I believe forever that shameful prudence will not come to me."
Poems about love
Mayakovsky’s love lyrics are represented by a small number of poems. But each of them is a small piece of the poet’s life with its sorrows and joys, despair and pain. “Love”, “Cloud in pants”, “Unfinished”, “About it”, “Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva”, “Letter to comrade Kostrov ...”, “Flute-spine”, “Lilichka!” - this is a short list of works by Vladimir Mayakovsky about love.