[2] By the time of Ysaÿe's second stay in Paris around 1885, he had prided himself on having written several polonaises, mazurkas, and concertos without ever having taken harmony and musical composition lessons.

Without any real formal constraints, this genre usually consists of a single movement, alternating different sections with clearly contrasted characters, sometimes melancholy, sometimes turbulent, but always of a basically lyrical nature (even sentimental at times).

Combining aesthetic considerations and virtuosity, Ysaÿe's poems become a special place for the evocation of different images and emotions, without ever turning into program music.

Ysaÿe had always been attracted to the 'poem' form and states himself that "it is more receptive to emotion and is not constrained by the restrictions imposed by the hallowed form of the concerto; it can be dramatic and lyrical; it is essentially romantic and impressionistic..." He continues by explaining that "(the poem) weeps and sings, it is shadow and light and has a changing prism; it is free and needs only its title to guide the composer and make him paint feelings, images, abstractions without a literary canvas; in a word, it is a picture painted without a model."

Ysaÿe builds on the virtuoso pieces of the 19th century and utilizes devices such as scordatura, in which the violin's lowest string is tuned down to give it a darker, warmer timbre.

"[5] The beginning of this piece, marked soutenu et calme, opens with a very lyrical theme from the solo violin in D minor which steadily gains in animation and attains a high degree of intensity.

Poème élégiaque shows a mixture of influences including elements of Wagner and the composers involved in the Société Nationale de Musique, such as Fauré, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, d’Indy, Chausson and Lekeu.