Ariettes Oubliées (Forgotten Airs), based on poetry by Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) was published as a song cycle in 1903. It was dedicated to Scottish-American soprano Mary Garden, who had played Mélisande in the world premier of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902. Debussy is known as a master at bringing poetry and song together and this cycle is one of his masterpieces.

“C’est l’extase langoreuse” was composed with text from Verlaine’s Romances sans paroles (1874). The poet speaks to his lover, describing a warm summer evening in all its lush serenity. The music is as sensuous as the title would suggest, conveying a feeling of longing and weariness in love.

In “Il pleure dans mon cœur,” the poet looks out the window at the rain falling over the city in a melancholy mood. The music evokes a feeling of ennui, a lethargy that only a dreary rainy day can produce.

“L’ombre des arbres” is from the point of view of a nightingale who, sitting on a tree branch, looks down into a stream and sees its reflection. It believes it is seeing itself, having already drowned in the water. Debussy evokes the bird’s despair over shattered hopes with a tempo instruction of Lent et trieste, meaning “slow and sad.”

Finally, “Chevaux de Bois” brings a whole new atmosphere to the song cycle with a faster tempo, lending a playful air to the text, a depiction of a hungry, lonely man in the midst of a carnival scene. He watches the horses on the merry-go-round and the happy faces of the revelers, describing a happy and carefree scene.