О первой книге Маяковского: К проблеме становления лирического мира

The paper presents a survey of stable compositional models and basic components of Maiakovskiiʼs imagery system found by the poet as early as in his cycle book I! (Ia!). A new viewpoint is proposed on the problem of the subject of utterance in the notorious verse “I like to watch children die” (“Ia liubliu smotretʼ, kak umiraiut deti”); the original way of treating the “father and son” conflict in the culmination point of the cycle ('Some words about myself' - 'Neskolʼko slov obo mne samom') is accounted for. It is demonstrated that the search for an idealistic incarnation of “paternity” obtains a further development in the poem 'Listen!' ('Poslushaite!'), inspired by Francis Jammeʼs lyric poetry, and further in the poems for children 'What is good and what is bad?' ('Chto takoe khorosho i chto takoe plokho?'). The genre and stylistic conventionality of poetry for children makes it possible for the author to interpret the situation from the position of a wise father and solve all the contradictions in a space dominated by the artistʼs rational and humane will. 'What is good and what is bad?' is a rendering of the eternal problem of good and evil in childrenʼs language, the problem from which Maiakovskiiʼs development as a poet started. The authors of the paper arrive at the conclusion that the cycle I! is not a mere precursor of Maiakovskiiʼs further development but it appears to be the prototype of his artistic world.