Ex. 10-8: Les berceaux

Composed in 1879 to a poem by Sully Prudhomme from Stances et Poèmes (1865), originally titled Le long du quai les grands vaisseaux. The poem is built on a wordplay between "vaisseaux" (ships) and "berceaux" (cradles) — both the same shape, but at opposite ends of human experience.

Along the quay, great ships rock silently, paying no heed to the cradles rocked by women's hands. But the day of parting comes — women must weep while curious men chase horizons that deceive. And on that day, the great ships fleeing the shrinking port feel their mass held back by the souls of distant cradles.

Fauré wrote a blend of lullaby and barcarolle in B-flat minor, one of his favorite keys.