Berlioz wrote this song in 1834 and later incorporated it into his opera Benvenuto Cellini. He was a frequent self-borrower—he later used material from the opera for his Roman Carnival Overture. The structure of the song is strophic and the melody is warmly lyrical, in keeping with the text, which reiterates its tender avowals of love in each verse, so in order to provide a level of contrast, the first line of the repeated refrain "je suis a vos genoux...je crois en vous" is delivered with abrupt chords from the piano and heavy accents in the vocal line on each syllable. While somewhat abrupt, it serves to accentuate the overall lyricism as well as to hint, as the text does, of past unhappiness.

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