In 1877 he enrolled at the School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences of the University of Athens, but he soon abandoned his studies.

His funeral at the First Cemetery of Athens on the next day became a major symbolic event of the Greek resistance against the occupation.

In a service spontaneously attended by several thousand people, the funerary poem composed and recited by fellow poet Angelos Sikelianos roused the mourners and culminated in a major public demonstration of defiance of the occupying powers, whose representatives, come to lay a wreath at the poet's tomb, were greeted by the crowd with the Greek national anthem and shouts of 'Long Live Freedom'.

He was an influential voice in Greek literature for more than 30 years, and greatly influenced the entire political-intellectual climate of his time.

Palamas was one of the most respected literary critics of his day, and instrumental in the reappraisal of the works of Andreas Kalvos, Dionysios Solomos and the "Ionian School" of poetry, Kostas Krystallis et al.