If Prokofiev's song sets can often be linked stylistically to certain of his piano collections—as the Op. 23 Five Poems can be associated with the (5) Sarcasms for piano, Op. 17—this Op. 27 effort shares much in common with the sound world of the (20) Visions Fugitives, Op. 22 (1915 - 1917). True, these songs are deeper and a bit more serious, and they lack the often lively tempos and wide expressive range of those colorful piano pieces, but like them they divulge impressionistic characteristics, and offer subtle and mostly subdued music, with piano writing and thematic wares which resemble those of the Visions. These songs are all settings of text by Anna Akhmatova and must be counted among the finest early vocal efforts of Prokofiev.

The first two songs, "Sunshine Has Filled the Room" and "Real Tenderness, are both short, the first evolving from the gossamer, angelic music of the opening to the darker, fading music at the close. The latter is gloomy and gentle, its text cynical in its view of love. No. 3, "Memories of Sunlight," presents a lovely, flowing melody at the outset and disturbing, tense music from the lower ranges in the middle section. The text, once again, paints a negative picture of love—or of love that never blossomed.

The fourth item, "Greeting," is another dark song, both in its slow and agitated music and its picture of rejection in the text. "The Gray-Eyed King," the longest song in the set at about four minutes, is gloomy and ethereal throughout, its haunting atmosphere effectively conveying the curiously truncated Akhmatova text about the recent passing of a king with gray eyes. In sum, while these songs are all artistically worthwhile, they will not appeal to certain listeners owing to their generally dark moods and slow tempos.

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