Acknowledgments: This work was carried out at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 23-78-01016 “Cosmic Images in Russian Poetry of the Late: Ontology and Poetics.”
Abstract: The article aims to identify the empirical foundations of the cosmic imagery of G. R. Derzhavin’s poetry and to reveal the mechanisms for transforming visible pictures of the Universe in the poem “To Eugene. Life in Zvanka.” Property inventories and drawings of the Zvanka estate allow us to establish Derzhavin’s passion for observing the movement of celestial bodies and what kind of telescope the poet used for it. The article considers the nominations “glasses of optics” and “gloomy lantern,” which the poet uses to represent a telescope. By looking through a telescope, the poet sees what is inaccessible in natural existence but, at the same time, is part of the Divine world and complements the idea of the Divine Universe. The article examines the symbolic fullness of the images of celestial bodies in Derzhavin’s poem in comparison with the treatises of Augustine the Blessed. It clarifies the poet’s understanding of beauty not only in its aesthetic but also in its intellectual component.
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