The essence of the European medieval tradition of courtly love, which served as the inspiration for centuries of French poetry and music, is encapsulated in the second verse of Bernart de Ventadorn's famous monophonic song Can vei la lauzeta mover: "Alas! I thought myself so wise in love, and yet I was so ignorant; for I can't help falling for a woman who will never return my love!" Even with what modern ears might consider an impoverished palette of musical materials—a simple monophonic melody in a common church mode—the song conveys the exquisite irreconcilability of the speaker's love and its permanently unrequited state, his fervent devotion to a noble lady and the distance that tradition and duty places between them. Ventadorn was one of the best-known troubadours (poet/singers of medieval southern France). He is known for his music and poetry, as well as his rumored association (perhaps more than merely "courtly") with Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose court was the hub of the medieval French song tradition. Eleanor was the granddaughter of the William IX, known as the first troubadour, and mother of Richard Lion Heart, a well-known trouvère (as poet/singers were known in northern France). Can vei la lauzeta mover, which dates from the late twelfth century, thus serves as an exemplar of the secular song tradition of Ventadorn and Eleanor's time. Ventadorn's poem, written in the old Provençal language known as langue d'oc or Occitan, survives in eight strophes, each set to the same through-composed Dorian melody. Each strophe (except the shortened final verse) contains eight lines of eight syllables each, the lines corresponding to individual phrases of the melody and following an A-B-A-B-C-D-C-D rhyme scheme. The simplicity of the melody and tight structure of the poetry do not occlude the sentiments of the text as one might expect, but rather enhance them by playing out the kind of stylized restraint/resistance dichotomy conveyed in the poetry. In fact, the regularity of the structure serves to enhance the despair of the last verse. Resigning all hope of winning his love's favor and committing himself to death or exile, the speaker ends his lament by bidding farewell to his friends, life, love, and singing. Just has he abandons song, the song itself ends, the final strophe suddenly cut off at its midpoint.

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