Startling and vivid, it depicts one of the wildest and most colorful of Spring rituals, the festival of Adonis...In addition to being the ideal of manly beauty, Adonis was the God of vegetation whose death and return to life represent decay in winter and its revival in Spring.

Del Mar also believes that the song "...remains in its orchestral version one of the most passionately colorful of Strauss's Lieder".

Das wunderschöne Jünglingsbild, Es liegt am Boden blaß und tot, Das Blut färbt alle Blumen rot, Und Klagelaut die Luft erfüllt: "Adonis!

By the torches' gleams They search the forest on every side, That echoes with anguish far and wide, With tears, mad laughter, and sobs and screams, Adonis!

The mortal youth so strangely fair, Lies on the cold turf pale and dead; His heart's blood staineth the flowers red, And a wild lament fulfills the air, Adonis!