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.