Félix Arvers

Who was Félix Arvers?

Félix Arvers was a French poet and dramatist, most famous for his poem Un secret.

Born in Paris, 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, the daughter of writer Charles Nodier. This poem was taken from a piece he wrote aged 25, Mes heures perdues.

Felix Arvers found no way to express his unrequited love and alleviate his pain, he had no way but confide his feelings in a sonnet. 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.