ung. His mother, a Russian gentlewoman, died at the age
of thirty-one, of consumption. At the age of sixteen, Nadson fell in
love with a young girl, and began to write poetry. She died of quick
consumption shortly afterwards. This grief affected the young man's
whole career, and many of his poems were inspired by it. He began to
publish his poems while still in school, being already threatened with
pulmonary trouble, on account of which he had been sent to the Caucasus
at the expense of the government, where he spent a year. In 1882 he
graduated from the military school, and was appointed an officer in a
regiment stationed at Kronstadt. There he lived for two years, and some
of his best poems belong to this epoch: "No, Easier 'Tis for Me to Think
that Thou Art Dead," "Herostrat," "Dreams," "The Brilliant Hall Has
Silent Grown," "All Hath Come to Pass," and so forth. He retired from
the military service in 1883, being already in the grasp of consumption.
His poems ran through ten editions during the five years which followed
his death, and still continue to sell with equal rapidity, so remarkable
is their popularity. He was an ideally poetical figure; moreover, he
charms by his flowing, musical verse, by the enthralling elegance and
grace of his poetical imagery, and genuine lyric inspiration. All his
poetry is filled with quiet, meditative sadness. It is by the music of
his verse and the tender tears of his feminine lyrism that Nadson
penetrates the hearts of his readers. His masterpiece is "My Friend, My
Brother," and this reflects the sentiment of all his work.[52] Here is
the first verse:

My friend, my brother, weary, suffering brother,
Whoever thou may'st be, let not thy spirit fail;
Let evil and injustice reign with sway supreme
O'er all the tear-washed earth.
Let the sacred ideal be shattered and dishonored;
Let innocent blood flow in stream--
Believe me, there cometh a time when Baal shall perish
And love shall return to earth.

Another very sincere, sympathetic, and genuine, though not great poet,
also of Jewish race, is Semen Grigorievitch Frug (1860-1916), the son
of a member of the Jewish agricultural colony in the government of
Kherson. He, like Nadson, believes that good will triumph in the end,
and is not in the least a pessimist.

Quite the reverse are Nikolai Maximovitch Vilenkin (who is better known
by his pseudonym of "Minsky" from his native government), and Dmitry