The text of this piece is a collection of quotes from Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. In the piece, the narrator plays the part of Mary, a young girl struggling with feelings of frustration and loneliness. Throughout Hodgson Burnett's story, both the garden and the robin are ever-present metaphors for Mary and her stages of emotional growth, and many of the clarinet's figures in this piece take their inspiration from the robin's song. The piece attempts to capture both Mary's frustration as she tries to explain her own loneliness and the empathy she seems to feel toward the forgotten and dying garden.
