Composed between April and June 29, 1896 while on holiday in Italy, the Poème was written in response to a request by the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe for a concerto. Initially entitled Le Chant de l'amour triompant - after a romantic novella by the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev which might have been inspired by events in his own life: the failed engagement of Pauline Viardot's daughter Marianne to the composer Gabriel Fauré and Turgenev's own infatuation with Pauline, which led to his leaving Russia to end up in Paris residing at the Viardot household. Turgenev, Pauline and Marianne Viardot and Fauré were all acquaintances of Chausson, but his ultimate creation was a work without any kind of extra-musical program.

The Poème was given its offical premiere with Ysaÿe as soloist on December 27, 1896 at the Nancy Conservatoire, with the orchestra conducted by Guy Ropartz. The present score is a superb newly engraved critical edition by Clinton F. Nieweg based on the composer's manuscript and the first edtion first issued in 2010 by the now-defunct E.F. Kalmus. The large score and orchestra parts are likewise available from Serenissima Music.