The composer was drawn to the beautiful stillness and sadness of the poem by Christina Rossetti, which transcend its rigid sonnet structure, and allude via the epigraph to the mysterious Willow-Wood cycle by Christina’s brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The music suggests a division of the poem into three stanzas, alternating with tranquil interludes (using the opening melody) representing the ‘willow-wood’ of the title, so that the listener is constantly reminded of the gentle surroundings. A...