By the time of the release of the Nine Songs, Op. 69, Brahms had distanced himself from the language of folk song heard in earlier sets. Some aspects, however, remain even in the Five Songs, Op. 72: diatonic melodies, repetition of the last words of a verse, consistent rhythmic patterns, and the omission of lengthy piano introductions. The songs of Op. 69 were both composed and published in 1877.

The first two songs of Op. 69, both entitled "Klage" ("Lament"), are settings of Bohemian (I) and Slovakian (II) poems, as translated by Joseph Wenzig. In each poem, a woman bemoans her separation from her lover. The first asks, in an earthy metaphor, "Tell me, how can one till soil without a plow, without horse?"—while the second relates how her parents have forced her to become engaged to a man she does not love. Both settings are strophic and in both the influence of the folk song is apparent in the diatonic melody and in Brahms' repetition of the final line of each strophe.

Another Bohemian poem translated by Wenzig, "Abschied" ("Farewell"), is the parting speech of a man who must leave a woman. The strophic setting, in E flat major, features a continuously flowing melody that contrasts with the dotted figures of the introduction. "Des Liebsten Schwur" ("The Sweetheart's Promise"), also a Bohemian text, describes a young woman's secret liaisons with a lover in her father's garden, where the man promised to marry her. After the longest introduction of the set, a leaping melody expresses the heightened expectations of the young woman in this strophic setting.

In Karl Candidus' "Tambourliedchen" ("Drummer's Song"), a drummer's instrument changes tone when he thinks of his sweetheart. Each verse in Brahms' martial, strophic setting closes with a refrain on the blue-gray color of his sweetheart's eyes.

Josef von Eichendorff's "Vom Strande" ("From the Shore"), a translation of a traditional Spanish poem, describes a woman calling from the shore to a ship carrying away her loved one. He does not hear her, and her lamentations only fill the sails of the "fleeting castles" that have stolen her sweetheart. In 6/8 time and A minor, rising, falling, and turning figures evoke images of passing waves as the piano accompaniment vacillates between 6/8 and 3/4. "Über die See" ("Across the Sea"), by Karl Lemcke, is also a lament of a woman whose man has sailed away. Again opening without a piano introduction, Brahms' simple strophic setting, in E minor, is not as illustrative as is "Vom Strande."

Gottfried Keller's "Salome" describes an arch plot by a woman to subjugate and defeat a man. Brahms' varied strophic setting, the only example of the form in the Op. 69 songs, reflects the metric disparity between the two verses of the text.

Siegfried Kapper's "Mädchenfluch" ("Maiden's Curse"), based on a Serbian poem, expresses the wish of a young woman to condemn a man, Javo, to a life with her. The central verses are set strophically in 2/4, while the last returns to portions of the opening triple-meter, verses.

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