Paris at Night

Paris at Night - context Summary

Published in 1946, Paroles

This very short lyric appears in Jacques Prévert's Paroles, published in 1946. It stages an intimate, domestic moment: three matches struck in the night reveal the beloved’s face, eyes, and mouth in quick succession, then darkness returns and the speaker holds the remembered whole. As a contextual note, the poem exemplifies the plainspoken, image-driven poems that fill Paroles, a postwar collection that favored everyday scenes and emotional immediacy. Its brevity and accessible imagery reflect Prévert’s aim to make poetry feel conversational and lived-in.