It was based on a poem by the satirical poet and anarchist Laurent Tailhade. Schmitt's today little-known composition is on a par with comparable song cycles by Debussy, Duprac, or Ravel. Indeed, the first documented performance of parts of the "Poèmes des lacs", although without "Tristesse au jardin", was a joint concert of Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel in Le Havre in 1907, with both composers performing on piano with a soprano soloist. Schmitt was among the most frequently performed French composers during the first decades of the 20th century but his works soon fell into relative neglect. The 1990s saw a minor Schmitt revival, and several of his compositions have since been recorded. - On a picture postcard showing the Marble Arch near Hyde Park. A few millimetres of the right border have been torn off (no text loss)..