Alexis-Félix Arvers (July 23, 1806 – November 7, 1850) was a French poet and dramatist, most famous for his poem ''Un secret''. Arvers was from Cézy, the son of a wine merchant. Arvers abandoned his law career aged 30 to concentrate on theatre. His plays gained moderate success in their own time, but none were as notorious as ''Un Secret'', dedicated to

Marie Mennessier-Nodier Marie-Antoinette-Élisabeth Mennessier-Nodier (26 April 1811 – 1 November 1893) was a French musician, poet, and writer, the daughter of Charles Nodier. She was largely overshadowed by her father and was well known in his literary circles at th ...

, the daughter of writer

Charles Nodier Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier (; 29 April 1780 – 27 January 1844) was a French author and librarian who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the ''conte fantastique'', gothic literature, and vampire tales. His dream related writi ...

. This poem was taken from a piece he wrote in 1840, titled ''Mes heures perdues'' (''My lost hours''). Arvers found no way to express his unrequited love and alleviate his pain, he had no way but confide his feelings in a

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

. The poem was so heart-rending and struck such a success and popularity with its powerful romantic description of profound feelings among the frequenters of the Paris literary salons that it was circulated for recite among them for years before becoming a classic of French romantic poetry after his death. ''Un secret'' was the only well-known poem in his oeuvre titled ''Mes heures perdues'', Félix Arvers was referred to in French literature as "The Poet of a single poem." The sonnet is also known around the world as the ''Sonnet d'Arvers'': Mon âme a son secret, ma vie a son mystère
Un amour éternel en un moment conçu:
Le mal est sans espoir, aussi j'ai dû le taire,
Et celle qui l'a fait n'en a jamais rien su. Hélas! j'aurai passé près d'elle inaperçu,
Toujours à ses côtés et pourtant solitaire;
Et j'aurai jusqu'au bout fait mon temps sur la terre,
N'osant rien demander et n'ayant rien reçu. Pour elle, quoique Dieu l'ait faite douce et tendre,
Elle suit son chemin, distraite et sans entendre
Ce murmure d'amour élevé sur ses pas. A l'austère devoir pieusement fidèle,
Elle dira, lisant ces vers tout remplis d'elle:
"Quelle est donc cette femme ?" Et ne comprendra pas! Plaque Arvers

My Secret My soul its secret has, my life too has its mystery,
A love eternal in a moment's space conceived;
Hopeless the evil is, I have not told its history,
And the one who was the cause nor knew it nor believed. Alas! I shall have passed close by her unperceived,
Forever at her side, and yet forever lonely,
I shall unto the end have made life's journey, only
Daring to ask for naught, and having naught received. For her, though God has made her gentle and endearing,
She will go on her way distraught and without hearing
These murmurings of love that round her steps ascend. Piously faithful still unto her austere duty,
She will say, when she shall read these lines full of her beauty,
"Who can this woman be?" and will not comprehend. --translated by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arvers, Felix 19th-century French poets 1806 births 1850 deaths French male poets 19th-century French male writers