 In his anthology Lyrik des Jugendstils ( Poetry of Art Nouveau ) Jost Hermand noted that the title is paradigmatic for the literature of the Jugendstil . The theme is a man going to meet a beloved woman , as in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's 1771 poem " Willkommen und Abschied " ( Welcome and Farewell ) . In Bierbaum 's poem , he speaks in the first person . 
