This short, but extremely expressive piece is the fourth of eight songs which compose the cycle Frauenlieben und Leben (Love and Life of a woman) op.42 (composed 1830) by Robert Schumann. The love of a woman is here portrayed in all its phases (from the first meeting with her beloved, to her marriage with him, to his dead and the life after this traumatic event). The poems are by Adelbert von Chamisso.
 
Schumann surely reflected in this cycle his inner experience with Clara (even if he was spared from the loss of his woman); the songs are all together splendidly soulful and touch in some occasions truly magic moments (like at the end, where, after her husband’s dead, the piano plays, like a tender but heartbreaking memory the initial melody of the first meeting-song).