Schubert’s “Auf dem Flusse” from “Die Winterreise” song cycle is based on the poem by Wilhelm Müller; the 5 stanzas describe the frosted torrent and compare it to the narrator’s heart after a failure in marriage (“ein zerbrochner Ring”, Eng. ‘broken ring’). Even though “Auf dem Flusse” is written in the ternary song form, the first two sections which contain the first 4 stanzas are as long as the return where the last, fifth stanza, is repeated twice in a form of variations on the material of A section (the form reminds chaconne/passacaglia structure but is in 2/4).
Stasie Gonikberg Blog 