The poet's exuberant response to maternal nature in the first stanza is emphasized by the upbeat "Und" in the first line, before settling into a steady iambic beat. 

The middle stanza changes abruptly into a more reflective trochaic rhythm, with the double stress in the last line "Hier auch" shaking the poet from his reverie. 

The final two stanzas maintain the trochaic rhythm, combined with the rhyme scheme of the first section, which, however, is subtly modulated - asymmetry within the symmetry - signifying the progress of the poet's development in the poem.

A boat ride across Lake Zurich becomes a journey of emotional maturation. The infantile ego of the first stanza (an earlier version began "ich saug an meiner Nabelschnur" "I suck from my umbilical cord") rocking within nature's bosom is suddenly disturbed by dreams from the past.  

By the last stanza the "I" dissapears, or, rather is contained within the reflexive "sich" of the "ripening fruit".  Nature, as well, becomes diffused from the towering mountains and the sun ("Aug"), to the reflection of a "thousand stars", while the mountains become obscured in the morning mist. 

By the final stanza the poet has reached the safe habor of the alliterative "beschattete Bucht" putting his infantile dreams behind him. 

湖上的旅程代表思想的成熟过程。 诗人最后抛弃了幼稚的梦想，抵达安全的更高的人生境界。