The Bedbug and Selected Poetry. Ed. By Patricia Blake [M94]

His verses are curses, His words are sharp swords,His phrases are races Of animal herds,He slashes and bashes, He kicks and he bites,The world of the uselessness, Bleeds and than dies.

Mayakovsky was one of the foremost futurist poets of the early 20th centuary. He wrote anguished (and mildly egocentric) pieces about being alone and unrequited in love. He also wrote political poems that were supposed to moblize the workers and shock the borgeosie establishment. This book is worth buying for the two epics "A cloud in trousers" and "The backbone flute" alone. The other poems are the icing on the cake, sounding off his thundering poetic voice. His final poem, "Past one o'clock.." starkly contrasts the others with it's muted depression. He would include part of it in his suicide note, changing the line "now you and I are quits" to "now life and I are quits." The Bedbug is a savage satire of Soviet society, and (had he not shot himself) would probably have gotten him arrested during the imminent Stalinist purges. After his death, Mayakovsky was lauded by Stalin. His pro-Bolshevik political verses were glorified and proudly shown off by the state, whilst his other poems and satirical plays were quietly supressed. Get this book if you want to see every side of Mayakovsky, and not just the one that has been publicized for years as propaganda.

Well, I love pre-Revolution Russian literature, so I guess I'm a little biased towards this book, but it really is good. Even the introduction is fascinating and inspiring if you ask me.

Mayakovsky's self-distinctive tone is one style that can be taken for either some of the worst mouthing off imaginable or the most brilliant & confident declamations of personality ever to appear on the pages of poetry.His startling lines filled with bragadoccio,machismo,exuberance,wit,irony,satire & love jump from the pages in brilliantly precise metaphors intensified by some of the most passionate lyrics ever to be written.The reader is kept on hold throughout.His best poems assault relentlessly signifying at times an intruder who is irregardless of others privacy.The weakness in Mayakovsky's verse is that the exhortant exclamations tend most of the time to thicken the surface of the subjects he assails,leaving the bottom composedly empty.This makes up for a shallowness that could have been repudiated if the poet would have seen things in a much broader level & not just within his somewhat narrow mind frame.His most accomplished poem may have been his last.And it takes on universal aspects & acceptance.The unfortunate omission of his great shorter poems is a dissapointment. The Bedbug is a funny & witty satire on the state of Soviet society at that time & where it may lead to,the way Mayakovsky saw it.The characters are enetertaining & real life,with wit present almost everywhere.The futuristic scenes in the end are impressive.And the final scene is heartachingly moving.The play could have benefited though from a more elaborate plot to give the characters & the situations more chance to stretch out.All in all a delightful read.