He was able to gain the support of the Grand Vizier Khadim Ali Pasha, and became his diwan secretary, who had had plenty of reasons to be annoyed with Mesihi.
Mesihi is mentioned as undisciplined, running after a pleasure-oriented life, and conscienceless toward his official duties.
The vizier, of Albanian descent himself,[6] is quoted to have called him "street-Arab"[4] or "street boy"[5] (Ottoman: Sheher Oglani).
[4] Mesihi's place in the Ottoman diwan poetry is that of a highly gifted and original poet.
[4] His Murabba' -i bahâr (Ode to Spring) was translated and published by the Orientalist Sir William Jones, and remained for a long time the best known Turkish poem in Europe.