He joined the elite Germanico-Hungaricum Institute in Rome, aiming to become a priest, but changed his mind and left.

Kranjčević's first poem, Zavjet (The Pledge) was published in 1883, a couple of months before he left for Rome, in the magazine Hrvatska vila, which was led by Eugen Kumičić.

He sent another two poems from Rome in 1884, Pozdrav (Salutations) and Senju-gradu (To the City of Senj), to Sloboda, a magazine in Sušak.

Šrepel noted Kranjčević's "vivid imagination" and "true poetic enthusiasm", but deplored the uneven quality of his poems.

More recently, the literary historian Ivo Frangeš [hr] said that the prophetic and bitter energy of its poems, although occasionally falling into pathos and rhetoric, embraced universal and cosmic themes, which made the young Kranjčević stand out among his contemporaries[citation needed], such as August Harambašić, whose main themes were declamatory patriotism or romantic love.

Kranjčević used Biblical, and classical parables, as well as symbols from the history of Christianity and Judaism; their allegorical nature suited his poems about fundamental human issues.

The nominal editor was the government adviser Kosta Hörmann, the benefactor of Antun Gustav Matoš.