[1] The theme of the poem is the duties and rights of the youth in the service of an overarching, higher ideal.

[3] Michael Ferber describes it as "unabashedly Schillerian in inspiration", and notes that the poem "deftly exploits neo-Classicist poetics in order to subvert the discourse that engendered them.

"[4] The poem has also been described as a manifesto of the secret student organization, the Philomaths, to which Mickiewicz belonged at that time.

[2][6][7] It would not appear officially for many years, but unofficial copies were made in such numbers that at the time of the November Uprising (an unsuccessful Polish insurrection against the occupying Russian forces) in 1830 the poem was already well known.

[9][10][11] From May 2024, a manuscript of the earliest version of the poem is presented at a permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth.