Through all sounds resounds
In earth's many-colored dream
A soft sound drawn out
For the secret listener.

The last stanza of Friedrich Schlegel's poem "Die Gebüsche" ("The Bushes").

Robert Schumann used this quatrain as the epigraph for his Fantasie for piano in C major, Op. 17 (1936). Since he and his beloved Clara had been forbidden to communicate by her father, she becomes the "secret listener" to the personal musical messages in this work.

Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentaum
Ein leiser Ton gezongen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.