Gavrila Derzhavin
born July 3 [July 14, New Style],
1743, Kazan province, Russia
died July 8 [July 20], 1816, Zvanka,
Novgorod province, Russia
Russia’s greatest and most original
18th-century poet, whose finest
achievements lie in his lyrics and odes.
Born of impoverished nobility,
Derzhavin joined the army as a common
soldier in 1762 and was made an officer
in 1772. In 1777 he entered the civil
service in St. Petersburg, and during
the next 26 years his posts included
those of provincial governor at Olonets
and Tambov, senator, and minister of
justice. His Oda k Felitse (1782; “Ode
to Felicia”), addressed to Catherine the
Great, gained her favour, and he was
briefly her private secretary. His
liberal political inclinations put an
end to his career in 1803, at which time
he retired to his estate at Zvanka.
Derzhavin preserved the grandeur and
solemnity of the classical ode as
practiced in Russia but made it less
restrictive and more lyrical and
personal in its tone and subject matter.
His odes are notable for passages of
magnificent imagery. Derzhavin worked in
many other poetic genres, and his poems
express both lofty and idealistic
moralism and his strongly sensual
appreciation of life. His work helped to
break down the strictures of the
classical poetic genres. His lyrics and
odes include “Na smert knyazya
Meshcherskogo” (1779; “On the Death of
Prince Meshchersky”), Bog (1784; Ode to
the Deity), and Vodopad (1794; “The
Waterfall”).
16-year-old Pushkin reciting his
poem before old Derzhavin in the
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1911 painting by
Ilya Repin).
Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich
Derzhavin (Russian: Гаврии́л
(Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, July
14, 1743 – July 20, 1816) was arguably
one of the greatest Russian poets before
Alexander Pushkin, as well as a
statesman. Although his works are
traditionally considered literary
classicism, his best verse is rich with
antitheses and conflicting sounds in a
way reminiscent of John Donne and other
metaphysical poets.
Life
Derzhavin was born in Kazan. His distant
ancestor Morza Bagrim, who relocated
from the Great Horde in the 15th century
to Moscow, was baptized and became a
vassal of the Russian Grand Prince
Vasily II. Nevertheless, by the 18th
century Derzhavin's father was just a
poor country squire who died when
Gavrila was still young. He received a
little formal education at the gymnasium
there but left for Petersburg as a
private in the guards. There he rose
from the ranks as a common soldier to
the highest offices of state under
Catherine the Great. He first impressed
his commanders during Pugachev's
Rebellion. Politically astute, his
career advanced when he left the
military service for civil service. He
rose to the position of governor of
Olonets (1784) and Tambov (1785),
personal secretary to the Empress
(1791), President of the College of
Commerce (1794), and finally the
Minister of Justice (1802). He was
dismissed from his post in 1803 and
spent the rest of his life in the
country estate at Zvanka near Novgorod,
writing idylls and anacreontic verse. He
died in 1816 and was buried in the
Khutyn Monastery near Zvanka, reburied
by the Soviets in the Novgorod Kremlin,
and then reinterred at Khutyn.
Works
Monument of Gavrila Derzhavin in
KazanDerzhavin is best remembered for
his odes, dedicated to the Empress and
other courtiers. He paid little
attention to the prevailing system of
genres, and many a time would fill an
ode with elegiac, humorous, or satiric
contents. In his grand ode to the
Empress, for instance, he mentions
searching for fleas in his wife's hair
and compares his own poetry with
lemonade.
Unlike other Classicist poets,
Derzhavin found delight in carefully
chosen details, such as a colour of
wallpaper in his bedroom or a poetic
inventory of his daily meal. He believed
that French was a language of harmony
but that Russian was a language of
conflict. Although he relished
harmonious alliterations, sometimes he
deliberately instrumented his verse with
cacophonous effect.
Derzhavin's major odes were the
impeccable "On the Death of Prince
Meschersky" (1779); the playful "Ode to
Felica" (1782); the lofty "God" (1785),
which was translated into many European
languages; "Waterfall" (1794),
occasioned by the death of Prince
Potemkin; and "Bullfinch" (1800), a
poignant elegy on the death of his
friend Suvorov. He also provided lyrics
for the first Russian national anthem,
Let the sound of victory sound!
Influence
According to D.S. Mirsky,
"Derzhavin's poetry is a universe of
amazing richness; its only drawback was
that the great poet was of no use either
as a master or as an example. He did
nothing to raise the level of literary
taste or to improve the literary
language, and as for his poetical
flights, it was obviously impossible to
follow him into those giddy spheres." Nevertheless,
Nikolai Nekrasov professed to follow
Derzhavin rather than Pushkin, and
Derzhavin's line of broken rhythms was
continued by Marina Tsvetaeva in the
20th century.
