The Bedbug and Selected Poetry

Rating:
Summary: THE VOICE OF REVOLUTION.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: THE VOICE OF REVOLUTION.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: great epics
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good if you dig Russian lit.
Review: 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.