The uniform gray background here is partly the result of a residual layer of ink, known as plate tone, left on the printing plate and transferred to the paper during printing. Additionally, the image is printed with narrow margins on chine collé, a French term designating instances when the pressure of the printing press is used to adhere a thin piece of paper, whose edges are just barely visible inside the margins of the lighter colored sheet, onto another heavier weight paper. This example of the artist’s experimentation with print format is unique among the various etchings created for the project. Matisse likely created this print early in the working process, and then abandoned the more elaborate format, deciding it unsuited to the abstracted grandeur of the poet’s verse.