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I am writing a piece of music in the style of Debussy and have to set a text by Baudelaire called 'Le jet d'eau'. I was wondering whether any french speakers would be able to advise me which are the stressed words in the poem/lines so that I can set the text to the music correctly. Many thanks! Lauren

The text:
Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante!
Reste longtemps, sans les rouvrir,
Dans cette pose nonchalante
Où t'a surprise le plaisir.
Dans la cour le jet d'eau qui jase,
Et ne se tait ni nuit ni jour,
Entretient doucement l'extase
Où ce soir m'a plongé l'amour.

La gerbe épanouie
En mille fleurs,
Où Phoebé réjouie
Met ses couleurs,
Tombe comme une pluie
De larges pleurs.

Ainsi ton âme qu'incendie
L'éclair brûlant des voluptés
S'élance, rapide et hardie,
Vers les vastes cieux enchantés.
Puis elle s'épanche, mourante,
En un flot de triste langueur,
Qui par une invisible pente
Descend jusqu'au fond de mon coeur.

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Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante!

I am not a native French speaker but can I suggest that you might ,if you are able make an attempt along the lines of this first line?

Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante!


It could make it easier for someone to "correct" your attempt...

I don't really know but I can read it and record myself if that can help you.

As a very very rough wood-for-the-trees guide, when you're setting a French text to music, try to align the final syllable of "content" words (so nouns, adjectives, but not prepositions, articles) on the first beat of a bars where possible.

If you want to give your song a more "classical" singing style, you might want to have a skim through a book/article on French versification before undertaking this to check other details. For example, a final -e on the end of a sentence doesn't count as a "syllable" and you would avoid aligning it on the first beat of a bar, but you would usually assign it a note in a more classical style (whereas in modern pop songs, not necessarily).

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