"Ars poetica" M.M. Cheraskova

The present paper discusses M.M. Kheraskov’s little known didactic poem ‘The Poet’ of 1805. It argues that the poetic form and theoretical content of this work are determined by the tradition of the didactic poem (Horace, Boileau, Sumarokov); Kheraskov’s thoughts on literary aesthetics, as reflected in his earlier works, offer another relevant context. In general terms, his poem can be characterized as a syncretistic amalgam of classicist, sentimentalist and preromantic elements, based on a rich substratum of masonic motifs. The appendix contains a reprint of the original text.