l this made a pronounced impression upon his art
and seemed to make him long for expression through the medium of his
love songs. He wrote to a friend at this time, "I am now writing nothing
but songs great and small. I can hardly tell you how delightful it is to
write for the voice, as compared with instrumental composition; and what
a tumult and strife I feel within me as I sit down to it. I have brought
forth quite new things in this line." In letters to his wife he is quite
as impassioned over his song writing as the following quotations
indicate: "Since yesterday morning, I have written twenty-seven pages of
music (something new of which I can tell you nothing more than that I
have laughed and wept for joy in composing them). When I composed them
my soul was within yours. Without such a bride, indeed no one could
write such music; once more I have composed so much that it seems almost
uncanny. Alas! I cannot help it: I could sing myself to death like a
nightingale."

During the first year of his marriage Schumann wrote one hundred of the
two hundred and forty-five songs that are attributed to him. In the
published collections of his works, there are three songs attributed to
Schumann which are known to be from the pen of his talented wife. As in
his piano compositions Schumann avoided long pieces and preferred
collections of comparatively short pieces, such as those in the
_Carnaval_, _Kreisleriana_, _Papillons_, so in his early works for the
voice Schumann chose to write short songs which were grouped in the form
of cycles. Seven of these cycles are particularly well known. They are
here given together with the best known songs from each group.

Cycle Songs

_Liederkreis_ {_Ich wandelte unter den Baeumen._
{_Mit Myrthen und Rosen._

{_Die Lotusblume._
_Myrthen_ {_Lass mich ihm am Busen hangen._
{_Du bist wie eine Blume._
{_Der Nussbaum._

_Eichendorff Liederkreis_ {_Waldesgespraech._
{_Fruehlingsnacht._

{_Wanderlust._
_Kerner Cycle_ {_Frage._
{_Stille Thraenen._

{_O, Ring an meinem Finger._
_Frauenliebe und Leben_ {_Er, der Herrlichste von Allen._