The Starry Night

"Past One O'clock..."
Past one o’clock. You’re probably in bed.
The Milky Way streams like the silver Oka.
I won’t send wild telegrams. I don’t intend
to trouble you and vex you any longer.
And now, as people say, our case is closed.
The boat of love could not endure the grind.
We’re even now. And there is no remorse,
let’s not bring up the sorrows left behind.
Behold what hush has fallen on the ground!
The starry night is grandiose and spacious.
At times as these, you rise and speak aloud
to ages, histories and all creation.
- Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1930

Like most of the Russian Futurist poetry, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “Past One O’clock” examines a relatable topic (in this case, a past relationship) in a unique and heartbreaking manner. As Ezra Pound said, “make it new” – and, though not of the same movement as Pound, Mayakovsky is able to do just this with his colorful use of diction, syntax and form. Also, by making an individual’s sentiments larger by juxtaposing it with foreign concerns (bigger than one’s body), the poem is able to create a universal message that isn’t a single person’s self-absorbed emotion.

The speaker of this poem appears to be a past lover issuing his feelings to his former other half. He is hurt and pained, but manages to keep his composure through both the content of the poem to the rich language he employs. His words seem almost rehearsed, as though he has been meaning to say them for quite some time. He has moved past the fact that the relationship is over, but still seems injured by it. The reader is never told the amount of aesthetic distance between the poet, Mayakovsky, and the speaker himself, but such an intimate piece seems as though it must be rooted in fact, not fiction.

The purpose of this poem appears to the reader if he or she reads between the lines. Yes, he is saying goodbye to a past lover, and declaring the score between them settled and even, but more importantly, his seemingly rehearsed words give a feeling that the speaker has an ulterior motive. His beautiful words may have been to spite the former lover, flaunting the speaker’s obvious intellect and ability to create beauty. In a sort of this-is-what-you’re-missing-out-on way, the speaker is assuring his former lover that he is keeping his head up, there are no hard feelings, and that he has not been defeated by the termination of their relationship.

In terms of theme and motifs, I have noticed similar threads throughout numerous Mayakovsky poems. Singularly, this poem offers the themes of reminiscence, remorse, forgiveness, and acceptance. He comments on the silver beauty of the night sky, and compares the route of a relationship to the following of a boat on its journey. This pulls in the motifs that appear in many of his poems; nature relating to emotion. Oftentimes in his work, Mayakovsky ties the outside world to his own (or speaker’s own) human experience. By doing so, his woes and wonders become larger than just himself – they become the world around him. By doing this, he celebrates his tie to the larger scheme of things – a technique and philosophy that he shares with poet Walt Whitman.

As far as conventions go, it is obvious what Mayakovsky utilizes. With his use of enjambment, his verses seem free and conversational (with, learned language, of course), not held down by stricter means of poetic technique. He is also a fan of using metaphors (“the boat of love”…) and exclamation (line 9). Also, the last three lines of the poem seem to introduce a slightly different idea. Most of the poem focuses on the speaker himself saying goodbye. But these last few lines reveal how he feels about the former lover, as he seems to begin to lose his train of thought in reminiscence, caught up in the memory of his past flame.

Mayakovsky’s poem, “Past One O’clock” is extremely successful because it takes a subject that could easily become overplayed and trite (accepting the end of a love) and makes it fresh, unique, and quietly powerful. Through selective word choice, interesting metaphors and perpetual motifs, “Past One O’clock” is anything but an ordinary goodbye.