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Clair de Lune
Au Clair de la Lune as a cultural trope means 'by the light of the moon.'
Wikipedia. One can find many links online about poet Paul Verlaine.
 Famous 1869 Poem.
This classic 1869 poem by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was, and remains, a monument to his times, to the Decadent and Symbolist and fin de siècle movements, and many others who would lay claim to its quietly melancholy magic and
power.
Verlaine’s contemporaries—composers like Claude Debussy and
Gabriel Fauré—put it to music. A great deal of creative activity centered around
Paris at the turn of the century, even while many great artists flourishing in Paris
came from around France (e.g., Arthur Rimbaud, Maurice Ravel) and greater Europe
(Alphonse Mucha, Rainer Maria Rilke), not to mention U.S. personalities like Henry
James and T.S. Eliot. Later, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other U.S.
figures joined the magic at such Parisian locales as Shakespeare & Company. Much of
this is relevant to the expression and mood of this story by John Argo.
Verlaine’s title seems to point toward an old French folk song (Au
Clair de Lune) but, as this novel suggests, our fascination with moonlight is
primordial and in our DNA. This is evident as well in the notebooks and works of
Leonardo da Vinci, whose immortal painting Mona Lisa or La Gioconda
has a place of honor in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Paul Verlaine was not the only great artist of the late 19th Century to
write, paint, or compose on the theme of moonlight.
A well-known example is Claude Debussy’s 1890ish Suite
Bergamasque, whose third of four movements is titled Clair de Lune. That
quietly haunting music is particularly suited to the mood of this novel as the story
ascends from darkness into light.
Other classic works of similar theme abound.
As early as 1802, Ludwig van Beethoven completed his Piano Sonata
No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata, styled a Fantasia) in a similarly pensive, quietly whimsical
mode.
Other famous composers of delicate nocturnes of similar title included
Gabriel Fauré in 1887 (Opus 46, Two Songs) which appears as Movement Six in his 1919
(Opus 112: Masques et Bergamasques).
 Victor Hugo wrote a poem by that title, Guy de Maupassant published a
short story anthology by that title in 1884, and a long list of other artists and
composers approached the same theme from their various directions.
The terms masque and bergamasque refer to traditional styles of harlequin or busker costumes and dances, especially in French and Italian
(Bergamo) cultures.
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