The poet's words are a moving soliloquy of betrayed love. The expressive phrase at the beginning portrays the retrospective sadness and the hurt of a lover and the heartbroken feelings at that time which he cannot forget. The following descending chromatic line in the piano underlines the words: "Pale grew they cheek and colder thy kiss."

The music starts to move faster and more passionately when the poet speaks about the pain he still feels whenever the name of his beloved is mentioned. A slowly rising chromatic line follows, reflecting the words: "A shudder comes over me / Why wert thou so dear?"

The music becomes more agitated again when the poet thinks about the deep pain he feels even now when reminiscing on their past secret meetings.

In the last part of the song Morawetz brings back the opening phrase to stress the words: "If I should meet thee / after long years, / how should I greet thee?" The composer repeats this question three times and thus gives an especially dramatic impact to the long pause which preceeds the poignant musical phrase at the last words: "With silence and tears."