The musical content of this tragic and moving song is based on three strongly contrasting moods.

At the begining, the dark, slow dotted rhythm in the piano pictures the father's concern for his child whose thoughts are constantly directed toward its deceased mother. In the next section we hear the voice of the frightened child asking about the location of the "Land of Dreams" where the child saw its mother. Agitated fast figures in the high register of the piano express the child's troubled state of mind. The tempo gradually slows down and leads into the solemn third section, suggesting the sound of an organ and expressing the child's vision of its mother walking in heaven.

In the second part of the song, we hear the same three moods in varied treatment. First, the sad voice of the father who tries in vain to see the child's vision followed again by the frightened voice of his child who asks: "What do we do in this land of unbeliefs and fear?" After this question, the solemn organ-like chords reappear with the child's words: "The Land of Dreams is better far above the light of the morning star." The child repeats these last words again, very softly, as from another world. In the last four bars Morawetz brings back the opening dotted motif to express the sadness of the father who realizes the hopelessness of his effort to bring the child's thoughts back to earth.