He began writing poetry only after 1820, when he became blind. He reached the success equal to that of Alexander Pushkin with The Monk (1825), a verse tale in which the darkness of a Byronic hero is sentimentalized and redeemed by ultimate repentance. The Monk produced as large a family of imitations as either of Pushkin's Romantic poems.
He began writing poetry only after 1820, when he became visually impaired. He achieved a level of success comparable to that of Alexander Pushkin with The Monk (1825), a narrative poem in which the darkness of a Byronic hero is emotionally intensified and ultimately forgiven through remorse. This work spawned a large number of poems similar to either of Pushkin's Romantic works.