[2] Metlinsky and other authors such as Izmail Sreznevsky and Nikolay Kostomarov published ethnographic materials, native interpretations of Ukrainian history, and collections of folk legends and Cossack chronicles.

[1] In 1839, he published a collection of poetry called Dumky i pisni ta shche deshcho (Thoughts and Songs and Some Other Things) under his pseudonym Amvrosii Mohyla.

Metlinsky's poetry contains his nostalgia for the glories of the Ukrainian Cossack past, which he believed were destined never to return.

[4] He did not believe in the possibility of a renaissance of the Ukrainian people, which led him to embrace Pan-Slavic unity and to place hope in Russia.

[3] In his autobiography, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi mentions collections of Ukrainian folk songs published by Metlinsky as works that influenced him.