This document examines Ernest Chausson’s Poème (1896) for violin and orchestra in its cultural context. It provides information about the French cultural environment at the end of the nineteenth century, including literature, art, and music. Ivan S. Turgenev’s story The Song of Triumphant Love, which inspired Chausson’s composition of Poème, is also investigated in detail. Supported by musical analysis, I propose how Poème is related to the story. In addition, nineteenth-century composers’ relationships with program music, symbolism, and impressionism are discussed, using as examples excerpts from Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Eugène Ysaÿe’s Poème élégiaque, Op. 12, Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. I contend that Poème is more an impressionist than a late Romantic work. It was greatly influenced by painting and literature during the late nineteenth century.