9 Famous French Poems And What They Are All About

Are you looking for the best and most famous French poems?

France has produced some of world literature’s greatest – from Voltaire to Hugo to de Balzac and Proust. 

The best of French literature is not limited to stories and novels, however. Its literary greats have also penned some of the finest poems in existence which remain so popular to this day. 

READ MORE: 9 Beautiful Poems About Paris

9 Famous French Poems And What They Are All About

Let’s check out these best French poems that have remained popular among the French to this day.

Classic French Poems

1. Demain, dès l’aube

Author: Victor Hugo
Year published: 1856

“Demain, dès l’aube” – a short poem that is generally considered one of the best-known works by Victor Hugo – translates to “Tomorrow, at Dawn.”

Victor Hugo is regarded as one of France’s greatest poets and the most important of the French Romantic writers. He wrote the poem as a part of his collection, Les Contemplations, which was published in 1856. 

“Demain, dès l’aube,”  comprising of only three quatrains, takes us to Normandy’s countryside – to the grave of the poet’s daughter, Léopoldine Hugo, who had died of drowning four years prior to his composition of this enigmatic poem.

“Demain, dès l’aube”

Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la forêt, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.

Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.

Je ne regarderai ni l’or du soir qui tombe,
Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j’arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur.

2. À une passante

Author: Charles Baudelaire
Year Published: 1855

Written by Charles Baudelaire, a contemporary of Victor Hugo and one of the major innovators in French literature, “À une passante” translates to “To a Passerby.” It tells about the poet seeing a female passerby in a noisy street and getting blown away by her beauty. 

The theme of “À une passante” is a chance encounter and an unseen opportunity. It’s a poem that invokes countless emotions as the poet takes the readers to his fantasy. It is about a possibility that is gone – a love that doesn’t come to be. 

“À une passante” is often cited as proof of the “modernité” (modernity)– a term he himself coined – of Baudelaire’s lyric poetry.

“À une passante”

La rue assourdissante autour de moi hurlait.
Longue, mince, en grand deuil, douleur majestueuse,
Une femme passa, d’une main fastueuse
Soulevant, balançant le feston et l’ourlet;

Agile et noble, avec sa jambe de statue.
Moi, je buvais, crispé comme un extravagant,
Dans son oeil, ciel livide où germe l’ouragan,
La douceur qui fascine et le plaisir qui tue.

Un éclair… puis la nuit! — Fugitive beauté
Dont le regard m’a fait soudainement renaître,
Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l’éternité?

Ailleurs, bien loin d’ici! trop tard! jamais peut-être!
Car j’ignore où tu fuis, tu ne sais où je vais,
Ô toi que j’eusse aimée, ô toi qui le savais!

3. Le Dormeur du Val

Author: Arthur Rimbaud
Year Published: 1888

Translated to English as “The Sleeper of the Valley,” “Le Dormeur du Val” was written by then 16-year-old Arthur Rimbaud in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. It was later included in an anthology of French poets, published in 1888. 

“Le Dormeur du Val” is a heart-wrenching poem that depicts a dead soldier surrounded by nature. It evoked anger from Arthur Rimbaud’s contemporaries. And even today, anyone who reads it will be moved by the poor soldier’s tragic fate. 

“Le Dormeur du Val”  is one of the most well-known poems to Rimbaud’s credit. 

“Le Dormeur du Val” 

C’est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière,
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D’argent ; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,
Luit : c’est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,
Dort ; il est étendu dans l’herbe, sous la nue,
Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme :
Nature, berce-le chaudement : il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine ;
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine,
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

French Poems Made Into Songs

4. Les Fueilles Mortes

Author: Jacques Prévert
Year published: 1946

Literally translated as “The Dead Leaves,” “Les Feuilles Mortes” by Jacques Prévert tells about a lost love that’s not forgotten, using the image of dead leaves to describe its memories.

“Les Feuilles Mortes” was adapted into a song called “Autumn Leaves” and topped the US Billboard charts of 1955. It has been recorded at least 1,400 times by mainstream and modern jazz musicians since.

It has also been sung in many languages by the music giants like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. The most famous French versions have been performed by Édith Piaf and Yves Montand.

“Les Feuilles Mortes” 

Oh, je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes,
Des jours heureux quand nous étions amis,
Dans ce temps là, la vie était plus belle,
Et le soleil plus brûlant qu’aujourd’hui.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,
Tu vois je n’ai pas oublié.
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi,

Et le vent du nord les emporte,
Dans la nuit froide de l’oubli.
Tu vois, je n’ai pas oublié,
La chanson que tu me chantais.

C’est une chanson, qui nous ressemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.
Nous vivions, tous les deux ensemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.

Et la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment,
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit.
Et la mer efface sur le sable,
Les pas des amants désunis.

5. Le Pont Mirabeau

Author: Guillaume Apollinaire
Year published: 1912

Similar to “Les Feuilles Mortes,” Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Le Pont Mirabeau” talks about a lost love which is likened to the river Seine flowing under the Mirabeau bridge in Paris.

It was inspired by the passion between the poet and his lover, the avant-garde painter Marie Laurencin, whom he had to cross the bridge to see. 

“Le Pont Mirabeau” – “Mirabeau Bridge” in English – was first released in 1912 and again in 1913 in Guillaume Apollinaire’s poetry collection titled Alcools (Alcohols). It had been made into a song numerous times over, one of which is a version by the popular French singer Marc Lavoine.

If you happen to cross Le Pont Mirabeau in Paris, you will get to see a plaque that bears the first part of the poem on its wall, overlooking the Louis Bleriot quay.

“Le Pont Mirabeau” 

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu’il m’en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine

Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure
Les jours s’en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l’onde si lasse

Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure
Les jours s’en vont je demeure

L’amour s’en va comme cette eau courante
L’amour s’en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l’Espérance est violente

Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure
Les jours s’en vont je demeure

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure
Les jours s’en vont je demeure

6. Mignonne, allons voir si la rose

Author: Pierre de Ronsard
Year Published: 1550

Here we’ve got another classic that’s been set to music and became a song. 

Penned by Pierre de Ronsard, generally claimed as the most famous poet of the French Renaissance, “Mignonne, allons voir si la rose”  (“Darling, Let Us See If the Rose”) was written for Cassandre Salviati, whom the poet was smitten with at the age of 20. The poem tells of the youth’s passing like the time of a flower – a rose, specifically. 

“Mignonne, allons voir si la rose”  was written in 1545 and published 5 years later. It has been sung in various renditions throughout the centuries, becoming one of the popular French songs then and now. 

“Mignonne, allons voir si la rose” 

A Cassandre
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit desclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
A point perdu ceste vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vostre pareil.

Las ! voyez comme en peu d’espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place
Las ! las ses beautez laissé cheoir !
Ô vrayment marastre Nature,
Puis qu’une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir !

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que vostre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse :
Comme à ceste fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir vostre beauté.

Popular French Poems For Kids

7. Mon Papa Chéri

Author: Unknown
Year published: Unknown

Aside from nursery songs in French, a French poem for kids is also a good way to get an introduction to the French language.

“Mon Papa Chéri” – or “My Daddy Darling” in English – is a pretty short poem that’s very popular among French kids. 

It’s simple and yet so beautiful because of its theme: a child’s love for his/her father. As the poem says, love is the most wonderful gift a child could give their dad for his birthday.

“Mon Papa Chéri”

Mon papa chéri,
Aujourd’hui c’est ta fête,
Quelqu’un me l’a dit,
J’aimerais t’offrir,
Quelque chose de beau,
Pour te faire plaisir,
Voici rien que pour toi,
Le plus merveilleux
Cadeau qui soit :
“Je t’aime, Papa.”

8. La Fourmi 

Author: Robert Desnos
Year published: 1944

From the collection titled Chantefables et Chantefleurs, “La Fourmi” was written to entertain frightened children during World War II. The man behind the words is the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. 

Although created for children, “La Fourmi”  is actually a poem of the French Résistance, a movement which Desnos was an active member of. The poem hides a lot of meaning that has to do with his fight against the Nazi. 

The “ant that’s 18 meters long” refers to locomotives that pulled a train carriage, while the French-, Latin-, and Javanese-speaking ant symbolizes the Jews that were taken away by these carriages.

“La Fourmi” 

Une fourmi de dix-huit mètres
Avec un chapeau sur la tte,
a n’existe pas, ça n’existe pas.
Une fourmi tranant un char
Plein de pingouins et de canards,
a n’existe pas, ça n’existe pas.
Une fourmi parlant français,
Parlant latin et javanais,
a n’existe pas, ça n’existe pas.
Eh! Pourquoi pas?

9. La clé des champs 

Author: Jacques Charpentreau
Year published: 1967

“La clé des champs,” meaning “The Key to the Fields,” was clearly written for kids for the sole purpose of entertaining them by stirring their imagination. 

Here the poet Jacques Charpentreau, a former teacher, takes a child to a fantastical field where trees walk around and drink from the fountain. 

Everything is not as they should be – from bushes playing cat and cows flying to rising rivers and racing hills. These unusual occurences are all because the “key to the fields” is lost. When the said key is found, then everything goes back to normal.

“La clé des champs” 

On a perdu la clé des champs!
Les arbres, libres, se promènent,
Le chêne marche en trébuchant,
Le sapin boit à la fontaine

Les buissons jouent à chat perché, Les vaches dans les airs s’envolent,
La rivière monte au clocher,
Et les collines cabriolent.

J’ai retrouvé la clé des champs
Volée par la pie qui jacasse.
Et ce soir au soleil couchant
J’aurai tout remis à sa place.

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