At the beginning of 1890, an outward sign revealed Debussy's desire for a change: he abandoned his given first name, which he had never liked, for that of Claude-Achille; in addition, he adopted a new signature, with a very different style of handwriting. This was also the period when the Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire were finally published. René Chansarel had helped obtain permission from Baudelaire's publisher to use the poems. A subscription was organized by Gaston Choisnel, a cousin and future employee of Jacques Durand. The edition—whose presentation was typically Symbolist in character (featuring a large format, on simulated parchment with wide margins, and with titles printed in blue, golden yellow, and brown)—had a print run limited to 150 copies at a cost of 12 francs apiece. Debussy's score would appear in February 1890, with a dedication to Étienne Dupin, who had provided financial support.

This collection, which all commentators agree is deeply influenced by Wagner's work, was beyond the capability of amateur singers and was even likely to scare off some professionals. Several years later, its complexity had still not been processed by various critics, and Georges Servières, surveying all of the composer's songs in 1895, condemned the Cinq poèmes unequivocally: “Harmonic peculiarities and defects, constantly broken and disjointed rhythms, unsingable intervals, no concern for vocal registers. […] The poetic lines are often poorly declaimed, the prosody violated, the meaning destroyed by the segmentation of the melody. Also, excessive chromaticism and grating modulations.”

For that matter, Claude-Achille would wait fifteen years before a public performance of the Cinq poèmes was given—an incomplete one, at that. Nevertheless, we now know that private run-throughs took place at the homes of André-Ferdinand Herold and Ernest Chausson. In neither case do we know the names of the performers, but it is likely that Claude-Achille himself would have been involved. Furthermore, the performance at the home of Chausson, with whom the young composer had not yet formed a close friendship but whom he used to meet at events of the Société nationale de musique, occurred during the very month in which the songs were published.