"Sehnsucht" ("Longing" or "Yearning") is an art song for voice and piano composed by Richard Strauss in 1896, setting a poem of the same title by the German poet Detlev von Liliencron (1844–1909).

Liliencron was twenty years older than Strauss, his father an impecunious Baron and his mother an American general's daughter, who for much of his life was in the Prussian army including active service in two wars.

[3] Norman Del Mar wrote that: Sehnsucht is remarkable for its complete change of mood midway in the poem and this, with its implicit musical possibilities, clearly fascinated Strauss.

The lonely wanderer on the barren heath becomes obsessed with thoughts of his beloved to the point of seeing her hallucinatory image, cold in manner at first, but touched by his repeated declarations of love, ultimately with laughing, shining eyes.

Die Heide schweigt, das Feld ist menschenleer; Der Wind nur weht im Knickbusch um mich her.

Und im Begegnen, nur ein einzger Blick, Des ganzen Lebens wär er mein Geschick.