[2] The critic Jacques-Henri Bornecque called Verlaine's book a "petite suite"; it contains twenty-two poems, mostly quite brief, representing varied scenes or encounters ranging from tender to ironic, inspired by Antoine Watteau's Fête galante paintings.
The settings in his Fêtes galantes cycle contained some material from the earlier versions, mostly in "Fantoches", although in that song the composer replaced the original flamboyant and virtuosic ending with a gradual diminuendo, which became a frequent feature of his style.
The musicologist Roger Nichols writes that they display "a far more adventurous harmonic palette" than the composer had developed at the time of the first settings, "blending modality and chromaticism in equal measure".
Nichols describes "Fantoches" as energetic and sparkling, contrasting with the first and third songs, which "float timelessly, allowing us to savour the famous 'musicality' of Verlaine’s poetry".
[5] The analyst Susan Youens writes that the outer songs are the " inward, melancholy visions of those who already sense, even in the midst of seeming love and luck, that 'la vie opportune' has passed".