Derzhavin, the author of poems who...

Derzhavin, the author of poems whom virtually every reader of his poesy (and Dmitriev first of all) would acknowledge to merit the title fully, declines to claim the title "Poet" because he is convinced that solely by proving himself as a statesman and man of action can he leave a convenient historical legacy. Dmitriev shows no similar compulsion to find his sensation of self-worth in professional achievements and places a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of more value on poetry in his sentence But it is precisely because he values metrical composition so highly, because he dioceses the mantle of the bard as such a lofty calling, that he renounces any claim to the title. Thus while the "real" imaginative thinker [i]or[/i] writer hides his poetic side to near himself a statesman, the "casual" bard is perceived as much more a man of poesy but is too modest to claim the title "Poet" in his have a title to right. Instead, Dmitriev constructs his decent depiction of himself around a poetry-based middle writing himself into a broad community of imaginative thinker [i]or[/i] writers but making poetry itself the real hero of his text

1 I would like to thank David Bethea, Martin Sidney, Rosmarie Morewedge, Nancy Tittler and the CSf anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions, corrections and remarks during the writing and revision of this article. I also thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting the research that eventually ariseed in this article.