Gavrila Derzhavin
Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin (Russian Гавриил Романович Державин; * 3 Julijul / July 14 1743greg in Kazan, .. .. † 8 Julijul / July 20 1816greg in Chutynski Monastery in Veliky Novgorod ) was the most famous Russian poet Pushkin before. Although his works of classical literature are assigned, are his best verses full of antitheses and contradictions that are reminiscent of John Donne and other metaphysical poets.
Life
Born and went to school in Kazan, he rose from private soldier to the highest officer of the state under Catherine the Great on. He was governor of Olonets (1784 ) and Tambov ( 1785 ), personal secretary to the Empress (1791 ), President of the University of Economics (1794 ) and Minister of Justice (1802 ). However, he resigned from office in 1803 and spent the rest of his life at his country estate in Zwanka near Veliky Novgorod. Here he wrote his poems and verses. He was buried in Chutynski monastyr monastery near Zwanka. During the Soviet era, he was reburied in the Novgorod Kremlin, to then be spent in his old tomb after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Derzhavin is best known for his odes, which he dedicated to the Empress and other members of the court. He paid the prevailing classification into genres no attention and integrated frequently elegiac, humorous and satirical elements. As an example may be mentioned his greatest ode in which he describes how he studied fleas in the hair of his wife and his own poems compares with lemonade.
Unlike other classical poets, Derzhavin felt joy of carefully selected details such as the color of his wallpaper in his bedroom. He believed that French is a language of harmony, while he held for a Russian language full of conflicts. Although he preferred harmonious alliterations, he sometimes used deliberately effects of cacophony.
His most famous works are:
- Ode to Felicia (1779 )
- God (1784 )
- The Waterfall (1794 )
- The Bullfinch (1800)
In old age, there was a meeting between Derzhavin and the young Pushkin. Pushkin presented in 1815 as a student of the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum his poem memories of Tsarskoye Selo before the poet, who distinguishes him for this. This positive experience Pushkin processed in the last line of Eugene Onegin: