Apollo and Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree. The myth of Apollo and Daphne has been examined as a battle between chastity (Daphne) and sexual desire (Apollo). As Apollo lustfully pursues Daphne, she is saved through her metamorphosis and confinement into the laurel tree which can be seen as an act of eternal chastity. Daphne is forced to sacrifice her body and become the laurel tree as her only form of escape from the pressures of Apollo's constant sexual desires. Apollo crafts himself a wreath out of her laurel branches and turning her symbol of chastity into a cultural symbol for him
The Wood Nymph to be "really a tone painter and poet" in the mold of the symphonic poems of Liszt. In "The Wood Nymph", Sibelius adheres closely to the narrative structure of Rydberg's poem, so much so that at the 1895 premiere, audience members were provided with copies of the source material, indicating the centrality of Rydberg's plot to the performance. Due to its programmatic qualities, musicologists commonly describe "The Wood Nymph", although in one movement, as consisting of four informal sections or "dramatic "tableaux"", each of which corresponds to one of the poem's four stanzas: Björn, "a tall and handsome lad", is