Le Poète Mourant is one of Charles Millevoye's finest poems. It is both a narrative and a dramatization of a poet's death, as he lies stroking his lyre and voicing his last wishes to his friends. A narrator both introduces and closes the poem, telling us that he breathes his last breath as the lyre falls from his hands and his lamp is extinguished. The narrative is set in short, lyrical phrases with delicate accompanimental figures in the piano. The poet has a visionary picture of his last days, sung to more grandly operatic music. Toward the end of his description of his death, the music fades, and then the opening narrative music is recapitulated with the words, "Le poet chantait" or "The poet sings."

This song, for voice and piano, is one of Meyerbeer's lengthier settings. It is dramatic, moving, and highly poetic, with the emotional content of the poem mirrored in the song exactly. The sections of the work offset one another, with the dramatic middle portion being the most lengthy, most substantial, and most impassioned. It is framed by two delicate sections of narrative which introduce the poet, then lay him to rest.

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