The most talented of the young poets of this period was Semen Yakovlevitch Nadson (1862-1887). His grandfather, a Jew who had joined the Russian Church, lived in Kieff. His father, a gifted man and a fine musician, died young. 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 Sergyeevitch Merezhkovsky (1865) who, as a poet, is generally bombastic. His novels are better.