In December 1949 he wrote to his mother about the effect of his work:

a gloomy poem and gloomy music. [...] I have the impression that I’ve done it pretty well. And you see, Mum, it wasn’t easy to make something of this poem without getting into the pompier style. I seem to have managed to avoid that (letter of 4 December 1949).

A piano prelude is followed by extremely clearly presented three stanzas of Pushkin’s poem, and then after an instrumental interlude the composer introduces two more stanzas, crowning them with a piano postlude. A simple, chord-based texture emphasises the clarity of the text (like in Mycielski’s mass song Flowers on the Track). When it comes to the harmony, we can find a number of dissonant note combinations as well as major/minor chords known from Andrzej Panufnik’s oeuvre. The subdued, gloomy mood of the work is enhanced by a falling melodic line.