This is one of the best of all single-movement concerted works for flute and orchestra, a masterpiece of less than ten minutes' length that displays all the potential of the flute as a solo instrument. Its composer was an American who had a tragically short life, living from 1884 to 1920. Moreover, Griffes was a painstaking composer who wrote his works slowly. His income from teaching was so meager that he had to copy out parts for his orchestral scores himself to get performances, which was sheer drudge work. The strain of repeatedly staying up through the night to do this is said to have broken his health.

He wrote this Poem for the famous French flutist Georges Barrère, who played it with the New York Symphony Society, Walter Damrosch conducting, on November 16, 1919. In keeping abreast of European musical developments, Griffes had adopted some harmonic practices from Debussy, and this music has the cool sensuality and sense of antiquity associated with the French master. It is not quite right to say that the music is some sort of "American Impressionism," for the harmonies still tend to be functional (i.e. are used in their accustomed role as the energizer of forward progress in the music) rather than coloristic.

Above all, the piece is extraordinarily beautiful. It is scored for a small orchestra of strings with the addition of two horns that add an extraordinary magical touch to the sonorities. There is effective use of percussion, lightly applied. The form of the work is that of a Liszt rhapsody: a languorous slow flute solo in a nocturnal atmosphere is succeeded by a lithe, fast dance. The first part lets the flute show off its sheer beauty of tone, while the second displays exceptional virtuosity in its rapid figurations.

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