Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov was born in Moscow in 1821. He started writing poetry at the age of fifteen. In 1837 Apollon entered the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University. He dreamt of becoming an artist, but due to poor eyesight and achievements in the literary field he decided to dedicate himself to poetry.

In 1842 Maykov traveled across Europe: he was in Italy, France, and attended lectures in Sorbonne. His journeys had a beneficial impact on the poet’s creativity: he wrote Sketches of Rome (1847) and his master's thesis about the Old Slavic law.

Maykov worked in the Ministry of Finance, then in the library of the Rumyantsev’s Museum, and later was the chairman of the foreign censorship committee. Maykov's poetry is characterized by contemplative mood, clarity of pattern and poetic forms. The poet died in St. Petersburg in 1897.