Charles Griffes grew up in a small town called Elmira, New York. One of his first piano teachers, Mary Broughton, was a great inspiration to him and served as his personal mentor. Many of Griffes’s first compositions were dedicated to her. Griffes chose upon graduation to move to Berlin to pursue musical studies in 1903, with some financial support from Miss Broughton. There he chose to study composition rather than piano, and studied with Engelbert Humperdinck. In 1907 he returned to the United States, where he taught at a private boy’s boarding school in Tarrytown, New York called the Hackley School. He lived a challenging, somewhat private life, during a time when his homosexuality was not openly accepted, and he tended to keep his personal life and community to himself. He taught at the Hackley School until his death, despite always wanting a studio in New York City.

Griffes’s Poem was written in 1918 and premiered on November 16, 1919 by the renowned French flutist Georges Barrère with the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch, in the Aeolian Hall in New York City. The piece was actually directly inspired by Barrère’s sound — since his performance as the solo flutist in the premiere of Claude Debussy’s Prèlude à l’après-midi d’un faune he had been renowned for his beauty of tone. Griffes was not interested in writing anything based purely on technicality, so this quality inspired him. Poem was one of Griffes’s last compositions before his death in April 1920, and has been cited by some as a possible contributing factor to his death, as it took much of his energy to write, on top of his many other obligations, while his health was diminishing. This performance came around the same time as a contract he signed with the Duo-Art Reproducing Piano, the Boston Symphony’s premiere and subsequent Carnegie Hall performances of The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s premiere of Bacchanale, The White Peacock, Clouds, and Nocturne for Orchestra. Just as he was finally gaining acclaim and publicity, he was on his death bed. He succumbed to influenza in 1920. He lived an incredibly challenging life, during a time when his homosexuality was not openly accepted, and kept his personal life and community to himself.

Griffes was considered to be one of the most important American Impressionist composers, which can be seen in Poem. It is a single movement work in C-sharp minor that has both flowing melodies and a feeling of improvisatory freedom. It echoes with many similarities to Claude Debussy’s Prèlude à l’après-midi d’un faune. The piece flits between many sections, with Griffes frequently using pedals to establish tonal centers as the harmony is constantly shifting. It begins with a mysterious melody that feels rhythmically and harmonically uneasy. The main motive is first heard in the piano (in the full orchestral version, in the cellos and basses) before the flute enters. It grows more rhapsodic and frantic until a folk dance breaks out. The frantic feeling later returns, this time with a hint of anger to it, until the opening theme is brought back at the end, bringing the piece to rest on a low C-sharp.