Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя сестра любит поэзию и читает стихотворения одного молодого поэта. - My sister loves poetry and reads the poems of a young poet.

любить + accusative: to love / to (really) like something as a stable preference.
- Моя сестра любит поэзию. = She is a poetry lover in general.
нравиться + dative: something is pleasing to someone.
- Поэзия ей нравится. = Poetry is pleasing to her / She likes poetry.

Both can be translated “like”, but любить here emphasizes a stronger or more enduring liking.

Why is it поэзию and not поэзия?

Поэзию is the accusative singular of поэзия.

The verb любить takes a direct object in the accusative case.
Feminine nouns ending in -я change to -ю in the accusative singular:
- поэзия → поэзию
- студия → студию, армия → армию

So Моя сестра любит поэзию literally is “My sister loves poetry” with поэзию as the object.

Could we say Моя сестра любит поэзия instead?

No, that would be ungrammatical.

Because поэзия is the object of the verb любит, it must go into the accusative case → поэзию.
Using the nominative поэзия after любить (любит поэзия) breaks the verb–object case rule.

What is the difference between стихотворения and стихи?

Both can refer to poems, but there is a nuance:

стихотворения: literally “poems”, more formal, emphasizes individual works.
стихи: literally “verses”, very common in everyday speech, often just “poems” in general.

So you could also say: Моя сестра любит поэзию и читает стихи одного молодого поэта.
The original with стихотворения sounds a bit more “textbook” or careful.

What case is стихотворения in, and why?

Formally, стихотворения (from стихотворение) here is accusative plural:

It is the direct object of the verb читает (reads what? → стихотворения).
Neuter inanimate nouns have the same form in nominative plural and accusative plural:
- nom.pl: стихотворения
- acc.pl: стихотворения

Even though it looks like nominative, in this sentence it functions as accusative plural.

Why is it одного молодого поэта, and why that form of the words?

The phrase одного молодого поэта is in the genitive singular masculine:

We are specifying “whose poems”:
- стихотворения (кого?) одного молодого поэта – “poems of one young poet”.
So один, молодой, поэт all go into the genitive singular masculine:
- один → одного
- молодой → молодого
- поэт → поэта

They all agree in gender, number, and case with поэта, which is governed by the “of whom?” relationship after стихотворения.

What does одного add here? Could we just say стихотворения молодого поэта?

Yes, you can say both, but they differ slightly:

стихотворения молодого поэта – “poems of a young poet” (some young poet, nonspecific).
стихотворения одного молодого поэта – “poems of one particular young poet”, something like “one (certain) young poet”.

Одного literally means “one”, but here it often implies “one specific / some particular”.

Why is it поэта and not поэт?

Поэт is the nominative form (“a poet” as the subject).

Here we need the genitive singular because we are expressing possession or authorship (“poems of a young poet”):

nominative: поэт
genitive: поэта

So стихотворения одного молодого поэта = “poems of one young poet” (genitive).

Why do the adjectives end in -ого: одного молодого?

The endings -ого show genitive masculine singular (also dative/accusative for animate, but here it’s genitive):

masculine один in genitive: одного
masculine молодой in genitive: молодого

They must agree with the noun поэта (genitive masculine singular), so all three words share the same gender/number/case.

Could we change the word order, for example: Моя сестра читает стихотворения одного молодого поэта и любит поэзию?

Yes, that word order is possible and grammatically correct. Russian word order is relatively flexible, and both parts are clear:

Моя сестра любит поэзию и читает стихотворения…
Моя сестра читает стихотворения… и любит поэзию.

The original order feels slightly more “logical” (first the general preference любить поэзию, then the specific behavior читает стихотворения), but both are fine.

Why is it читает and not a different verb form, like a perfective form?

Читает is the 3rd person singular present tense of the imperfective verb читать (“to read”):

Imperfective aspect describes repeated, habitual, or ongoing actions.
The sentence means she regularly / generally reads those poems, not that she finished them once.

A perfective form like прочитает would mean “will finish reading (once)”, which doesn’t fit the idea of a general habit.

Why is there no pronoun она (“she”) before читает?

In Russian, once the subject is known, you often omit the personal pronoun:

Моя сестра любит поэзию и читает стихотворения…
– both любит and читает clearly refer to моя сестра.

You could say Она любит поэзию и читает..., but after naming моя сестра, repeating она is unnecessary and would sound slightly heavier.