The author of the text was the French Symbolist poet Charles Cros 1842-1888. Chausson took his poem `Nocturne` from the cycle `Eternal Songs` and shortened it from 16 to 12 stanzas.
The plot is a bitter monologue of an abandoned woman who recalls her past love and happiness suffers from loneliness and in the end decides to drown herself in a pond to end her torment.