Duparc was not the most conventional of song-writers, and so this song, which is fairly conventional, is rather unusual among his works. It clearly shows the signs of the Pre-Raphaelite movement's aesthetics, although the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had been disbanded for some time.

The image of a princess or some such noblewoman waiting in a tower for her beloved is common among fairy tales and legends, and a favorite image for the medievalists of the Romantic period, particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelite circles. The Pre-Raphaelite literature and art is most clearly separated by its combination of an emphasis on purity, counterbalanced by images of sensuality and sexual awakening. It is perhaps this that most clearly shows in this song.

The piano sets a mood of a weary vigil, as the woman in the tower waits for her lover to come back. In very pure, clear lines she sings of her long wait, but then her voice rises passionately as she recalls their farewell kiss, where "he seized my soul at my mouth."

As she returns to the original theme, she describes her heart as a lily, about to overflow (again, the combination of an image of purity and an image of sensuality). The piano, with quick, excited chords, momentarily changes the mood, as she wonders if the sound on the stairs is her beloved, but the lightness, almost emptiness of the chords tells us what she realizes a moment later, that it is only her page, carrying a lamp. In one more passionate refrain, she asks the evening winds to tell her beloved that he is "all my joy, " and then the voice returns once more to the slow, clear theme of her waiting.

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