Although several smaller vocal works precede it, Olivier Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi (1936) stands as his first major song cycle and his first vocal work to be orchestrated. Originally written for soprano and piano, the work appeared in an orchestral version in 1937. It was dedicated to the composer's first wife, violinist Claire Delbos; "Mi" was his nickname for her. Like his later song cycle Chants de terre et de ciel (1938), which was written after the birth of their son and is concerned with the themes of family and parenthood, Poèmes pour Mi is a sentimental and deeply personal work that explores the spiritual aspects of marriage. The cycle consists of two books containing nine songs: four in the first book, five in the second. The theme of the first book is the preparation for marriage while the second book is concerned with marriage as a sacrament, a spiritual union. The text for the cycle, as with all of Messiaen's vocal works, was written by the composer. Throughout the work, dramatic declamations depicting the trials and terrors of the natural world are balanced by brief and quiet forays into the intimacies of the couple's relationship.

Poèmes pour Mi was written during a time of experimentation in which Messiaen began to explore different rhythmic systems. Greek and Indian meters and rhythmic patterns are in evidence, and foreshadow the significance that rhythm was to have in all of his later music. Canons between the singer and ensemble help the singer to grasp his complex rhythmic language. The piano version is also free of a time signature and bar lines, allowing the performers a greater rhythmic flexibility for shaping the floating melodic lines. The influence of plainchant is heard in the cumulative intensity of the melismas that end each sentence of text. The harmonic language falls consistently within Messiaen's tonal/modal universe, often resulting in subtle colorings that suggest polymodality rather than the more densely chromatic language of his later instrumental works like Chronochromie (1960), or the more synthetic hybrid found in the Turangalila-Symphonie (1948).

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