This article provides a philological analysis of A. N. Maykov’s poem "Emshan". The purpose of this work includes demonstrating the poet’s stylistic and diverse craftsmanship, revealing the semantic, sonic, and rhythm-melodic refrains in the poem’s text, and a deeper understanding of its content. This has required using the methods of slow reading, historical and linguistic commenting, as well as the line-by-line, rhythmic-semantic, and immanent analysis. The results show that Apollon Maykov’s poetry is distinguished by a harmonious combination of pictoriality and expressiveness, the recreation of personal external and internal worlds in their unity and interpenetration, and the masterful use of the entire rhythmic-melodic palette of a Russian verse. The author of this article emphasizes the need to acknowledge this great Russian poet and his achievements, to popularize his creative heritage, and to conduct a more thorough and extensive study of his work at schools.