 The texts for the 16 songs come from the "Lyrisches Intermezzo" of Heinrich Heine, written 1822–23 and published as part of the poet's "Das Buch der Lieder".Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert ("Die schöne Müllerin" and "Winterreise"), those of Schumann constitute part of the central core of the genre in musical literature.Author of the sarcastic "Die Romantische Schule", Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he himself is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer.