The first impression this sonnet makes on the reader is one of inscrutability. Indeed, Nerval's commentary on the eight poems that comprise Les Chimères was that ‘ils ne sont guère plus obscurs que la métaphysique d'Hegel ou les Mémorables de Swedenborg, et perdraient de leur charme à être expliqués, si la chose était possible’. None the less, Nerval's personal belief was that everything signifies, and that the occurrences, places and names one encounters every day are signs of one's destiny, meant to be deciphered. In fact, in the sonnet, each name, place and event is a sign rife with meaning for the destiny of El Desdichado, the Disinherited One.