Debuting as a Neoromantic in the Wallachian tradition, Macedonski went through the Realist-Naturalist stage deemed "social poetry", while progressively adapting his style to Symbolism and Parnassianism, and repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempting to impose himself in the Francophone world.

[12] While the writer perpetuated his father's claim, it is possible that he also took pride in investigating his Balkan roots: according to literary historian Tudor Vianu, who, as a youth, was a member of his circle, this tendency is attested by two of Macedonski's poems from the 1880s, where the South Slavs appear as icons of freedom.

[42] In 1874 that he came to the attention of young journalist future dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale, who satirized him in articles for the magazine Ghimpele, ridiculing his claim to Lithuanian descent, and eventually turning him into the character Aamsky, whose fictional career ends with his death from exhaustion caused by contributing to "for the country's political development".

The National Liberal Premier Ion Brătianu, who was negotiating an anti-Ottoman alliance, sent Macedonski signals to let them pass, but the prefect, obeying the official recommendation of Internal Affairs Minister George D. Vernescu, decided against it, and was consequently stripped of his office.

[35] Still determined to pursue a career in the press, Macedonski founded a string of unsuccessful magazines with patriotic content and titles such as Vestea ("The Announcement"), Dunărea ("The Danube"), Fulgerul ("The Lightning") and, after 1880, Tarara (an onomatopoeia equivalent to "Toodoodoo").

[65] An early success for the new journal was the warm reception it received from Vasile Alecsandri, a Romantic poet and occasional Junimist whom Macedonski idolized at the time, and the collaboration of popular memoirist Gheorghe Sion.

[93] Wealthy and supposedly related to Romanian aristocrats,[94] she would bear him five children in all: the painter Alexis was the eldest, followed by Nikita; the three youngest were two sons (Panel and Constantin Macedonski) and a daughter, Anna (also known as Nina).

It upheld Symbolist authors as the models to follow,[122] while Macedonski personally began producing what he referred to as "instrumentalist" poems, composed around musical and onomatopoeic elements, and showing a preference for internal rhymes.

[129] Macedonski also returned with a new volume of poetry, Excelsior (consecutive editions in 1895 and 1896),[130] and founded Liga Ortodoxă ("The Orthodox League"), a magazine noted for hosting the debut of Tudor Arghezi, later one of the most celebrated figures in Romanian literature.

[136] Although it was positively reviewed by Mercure de France magazine,[137] Bronzes was largely unnoticed by the French audience, a fact which Tudor Vianu attributes to Bogdan-Pitești's lack of qualification for the cultural mission Macedonski had trusted him with.

[24][169] He was actively seeking to establish his reputation in French theater, reading his new play to a circle which included Louis de Gonzague Frick and Florian-Parmentier, while, at home, newspapers reported rumors that his work was going to be staged by Sarah Bernhardt's company.

[171] Passing through the German Empire, he learned of Ion Luca Caragiale's sudden death, and wrote Adevărul daily an open letter, which showed that he had come to revise his stance, notably comparing the deceased author's style and legacy to those of Mark Twain.

[175] Polemics surrounding his case nevertheless continued: in late 1912, as part of a National Theater adaptation of Alphonse Daudet's Sapho, actor Cazimir Belcot borrowed from Macedonski's appearance and mannerisms to portray a failure.

Vianu, who visited the poet together with Pillat, compares this atmosphere with those created by other "mystics and magi of poetry" (citing as examples Joséphin Péladan, Louis-Nicolas Ménard, Stéphane Mallarmé and Stefan George).

Alexis was drafted and became a war artist,[196] but Macedonski Sr, who received formal protection from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest,[197] chose to stay behind while the authorities and many ordinary citizens relocated to Iași, where resistance was still being organized.

[200] A controversial incident occurred soon afterwards, when, going against the counsel of his friend and collaborator Stamatiad, Macedonski signed a Literatorul article where the German military administrator August von Mackensen, who was about to lead his troops out of Romania, was presented in a positive light.

[203] However, the poet made efforts to accommodate himself with the triumphal return of the Iași authorities: in December 1918, Literatorul celebrated the extension of Romanian rule "from the Tisza to the Dniester" as a success of the National Liberals, paying homage to Francophile political leaders Ion I. C. Brătianu and Take Ionescu.

[260] The poem is commended by Călinescu, who notes that, in contrast to the "apparently trivial beginning", the main part, where Macedonski depicts himself in flight over the Danube, brings the Romanian writer close to the accomplishments of Dante Aligheri.

[283] His version of Symbolism, critic Paul Cernat notes, clashed with that advocated by many of his contemporaries in that it rejected merit to the Decadent movement, and represented the "decorative" aestheticist trend of Paranassian spirit within the Romanian Symbolist current.

[284] Within Poezia viitorului, Macedonski invoked as his models to follow some important or secondary Symbolist and Parnassian figures: Charles Baudelaire, Joséphin Péladan, Maurice Maeterlinck, Stéphane Mallarmé and Jean Moréas.

[24][290] The motif was also developed in descriptive prose fragments later grouped in Cartea de aur, collectively titled nuvele fără oameni ("novellas without people") and compared by Călinescu with the paintings of Theodor Aman.

[294] Echoing satanic themes, Ernest Legouvé's dramatic version of the Medea myth (which Macedonski translated at some point in his life)[295] and the classical work of Jean Racine,[24] it shows the dark powers of political conflict intervening between the eponymous king and his ephebos-like protégé David, the latter of whom turns out to be the agent of spiritual revolution.

[297] Following the examples of Baudelaire's Les paradis artificiels, but also echoing his readings from Paul Verlaine and Théophile Gautier, Macedonski left poems dealing with narcotics and substance abuse, at least some of which reflected his personal experience with nicotine and possibly other unnamed drugs.

[300] A celebration of spring partly evoking folkloric themes, it was made famous by the recurring refrain, Veniți: privighetoarea cântă și liliacul e-nflorit ("Come along: the nightingale is singing and the lilac is in blossom").

[57][306] Partly based on an earlier poem (Meka, named after the Arab city),[57][307] it tells the story of an emir, who, left unsatisfied by the shallow and opulent life he leads in Baghdad, decides to leave on pilgrimage.

While critics agree that it is to be read as an allegory of Macedonski's biography, the ironic text does not make it clear whether the emir actually reaches his target, nor if the central metaphor of Mecca as a mirage means that the goal is not worth sacrificing for.

[348] According to Tudor Vianu, Macedonski's intellectual friends (among them Anghel Demetriescu, George Ionescu-Gion, Bonifaciu Florescu, Grigore Tocilescu and V. A. Urechia) were largely responsible for passing down "a better and truer image of the abused poet.

[350] According to historian Lucian Nastasă, the poet's wife Ana Rallet behaved like an "excellent secretary" while Macedonski was still alive, and thereafter helped sort and edit his manuscript while maintaining "an actual cult" for her husband.

This is the case of Theodor Cornel (who made his name as an art critic),[360] Mircea Demetriade,[26][361] Oreste Georgescu,[362] Alexandru Obedenaru,[26][337] Stoenescu, Stamatiad, Carol Scrob, Dumitru Karnabatt and Donar Munteanu.

[96] Constantin Piliuță, a painter active in the second half of the 20th century, made Macedonski the subject of a portrait in series dedicated to Romanian cultural figures (also depicted were Nicolae Iorga, Ștefan Luchian and Vianu).