Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin (, ; 14 July 1743 – 20 July 1816) was one of the most highly esteemed 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.

Biography

Early life and family

Derzhavin was born in the Kazan Governorate into a landed family of impoverished Russian nobility. His family descended from a 15th-century Tatar nobleman named Morza Bagrim, who converted to Christianity and became a vassal of Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow. Bagrim was rewarded with lands for his service to the prince, and from him descended noble families of Narbekov, Akinfov and Keglev (or Teglev).

A member of the Narbekov family, who received the nickname Derzhava (Russian for "orb" or "power"), was the patriarch of the Derzhavin family. The Derzhavins once held profitable estates along the Myosha River, about from the capital city of Kazan, but over time they were divided, sold or mortgaged. By the time Gavrila Derzhavin's father, Roman Nikolayevich Derzhavin, was born in 1706, he stood to inherit only a few parcels of land, occupied by few peasants. Roman joined the military and in 1742, at age 36, he married a widowed distant relative Fyokla Andreyevna Gorina (née Kozlova). She was from a similar background and also possessed a few scattered estates. The estates were the source of constant lawsuits, fights and feuds with neighbors, sometimes resulting in violence. The Laishevsky District is informally known as the Derzhavinsky District because of its association with Derzhavin. He was named Gavriil (Russian for Gabriel), as his birth was 10 days before the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, celebrated on 13 July in Slavic Orthodoxy.

Derzhavin's father was transferred to Yaransk and then Stavropol. Two more children were born,

a boy and a girl, although the latter died young.

He was dismissed from his post in 1803 and spent much of the rest of his life in the country estate at Zvanka near Novgorod, writing idylls and anacreontic verse. At his Saint Petersburg house, he held monthly meetings of the conservative Lovers of the Russian Word society. 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

thumb|left|Engraving of Derzhavin by [[Fyodor Iordan]]

Derzhavin 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.

Derzhavin also provided lyrics for the first national anthem of the Russian Empire, "Let the thunder of victory sound!"

Influence

thumb|200px|[[List of commemorative coins of Russia (1993)|1993 Russian 1 rouble coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of Derzhavin's birth]]

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. In 1995, Tambov State University was named after Gavrila Derzhavin.

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Notes

Further reading

  • 2 vols. (Vol. 1, vol. 2.)
  • (Read online.) Published in English as .
  • Facsimile reprint of
  • Collection of Poems by Gavrila Derzhavin (English Translations)
  • Illustrated timeline
  • Acrostic - How Mighty Time Strives Like A River (English Translation)
  • Luba Golburt, "Derzhavin's monuments: Sculpture, Poetry, and the Materiality of History", Toronto Slavic Quarterly 13, Summer 2005, retrieved 23 October 2006.