The article analyzes how an old believer Bishop Mikhail (Semenov), one of the prominent opinion journalists of the 20th century, drew upon S. Ya. Nadson’s poetry. Bishop Mikhail used poem excerpts as quotes, which allowed him to express his own attitude to other literary works, to argue, to highlight his own opinion. The use of Nadson’s allegory of Love has a specific nature of its own. An original means of an individual reception of other authors has been brought to light.