The poem is one of the earlier lyrical works by Mayakovsky, in which he uses a rather traditional metre, but undoubtfully extraordinary fresh and audacious metaphors embedded into syntactic inversions.  Who but Mayakovsky would have compared the many Petersburg churches’ cupolas to teats, and the Neva to a camel with two humps? Obvious references to Petersburg’s rainy climate become incredibly poetic as the sky over the city is compared to a human face with lips sucking on the teats of the church towers.

Mayakovsky moved to St. Petersburg, the capital famous for its wealth, cultural diversity, and cosmopolitan lifestyle in 1912. There he met Maxim Gorky who was instrumental with his initial steps and introductions. Mayakovsky wrote and directed his first play, a tragedy titled 'Vladimir Mayakovsky', that premiered at a St. Petersburg theatre in 1913. At that time, on a dacha in the Levashovo suburb of St. Petersburg, Mayakovsky met Lilya Brik, the woman who changed his life forever, and became his Muse, lover, and most trusted companion, while her husband, Osip Brik eventually became the publisher of Mayakovsky's most important works. In St. Petersburg Mayakovsky published his passionate poems: 'Cloud in the Trousers' (1915) and 'The Backbone Flute' (1916).
In the popular literary club "Brodyachaya Sobaka" (“ Wandering Dog”) Mayakovsky met the aspiring poet Anna Akhmatova, her husband Nikolai Gumilev, and other important figures of the flourishing St. Petersburg cultural scene. Kornei Chukovsky, one of the leading writers in St. Petersburg, proclaimed Mayakovsky a genius, and promoted his poetry.