Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816) was the dominant Russian poet of the 18th century and one of the founders of the modern Russian literary language. His Spiritual Odes are solemn, majestic verse meditations on God, mortality, and the soul — deeply rooted in the Russian Orthodox tradition and in the European Enlightenment simultaneously. Note that this work is written in Russian (оригинальный текст на русском языке).
Derzhavin is the poet whom the young Pushkin famously moved to tears when he recited verse at a school examination — a passing of the torch from one great era to the next. This free EPUB download makes this cornerstone of the Russian literary tradition available to all readers.