The majority of them are rather difficult reading.
A poet who did not wholly belong to this school, but wrote in many styles, was Yakoff Petrovitch Polonsky (1820-1898).[26] Under different conditions he might have developed fire and originality, both in his poems and his prose romances.

His best known poem is "The Grasshopper-Musician" (1863).

He derived his inspiration from various foreign poets, and also from many of his fellow-countrymen.

Among others, those in the spirit of Koltzoff's national ballads are not only full of poetry and inspiration, art and artless simplicity, but some of them have been set to music, have made their way to the populace, and are sung all over Russia.

Others, like "The Sun and the Moon" and "The Baby's Death" are to be found in every Russian literary compendium, and every child knows them by heart.
But while the poetry of this period could not boast of any such great figures as the preceding period, it had, nevertheless, another camp besides that of the "pure art" advocates whom we have just noticed.