[1] He made his literary debut in 1868 with Umbra lui Mihai, a poem in three cantos that appeared in Grigore H. Grandea's Albina Pindului, to which he continued to contribute, sometimes under the pen names Basiliu Dimitrescu and Vasile Demetrescu.
Together with Anghel Demetrescu, another prestigious schoolteacher, he belonged to Orientul, a literary society organized around Grandea, and through which he became acquainted with Mihai Eminescu.
He published the biographical sketch Ferdinand de Hohenzolern (1889); Catastrofa Nibelungilor, a "literary critical analysis" (1896); Ficțiune, imagine și comparațiune.
Poveste poetică (1896) and Înrudirea poeziei cu celelalte arte frumoase (muzica, pictura, plastica și arhitectura) (1898).
From 1897 to 1899, he was editor-in-chief of Revista societății "Tinerimea română", and co-edited Apărarea națională, where he sometimes signed as Davus or Pavo Zorilă.