“...Merezhkovsky the poet is inseparable from Merezhkovsky the critic and thinker. His novels, dramas, poems say the same thing as his studies, articles and feuilletons. “Symbols” develop the thoughts of “Eternal Companions”, “Julian” and “Leonardo” embody in images the ideas of the book about “Tolstoy and Dostoevsky”, “Paul” and “Alexander I and the Decembrists” provide the premises for the conclusions that are set out by Merezhkovsky in the columns “Rech” and “Russian Word”. Merezhkovsky's poetry is not a series of isolated poems, prompted by the accidents of life, such as, for example, the poems of his peer, a real, born poet, K. Fofanov. Merezhkovsky's poetry is not improvisation, but the development of certain ideas in poetry, and a number of collections of his poems seem to be harmonious milestones of the path he has traveled. ..." (V. Bryusov)