http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/2011/11/26/explore-the-score-schumann-symphony-no-2/
The Finale (Allegro molto vivace) was the movement in which Schumann said that for the first time since his illness started he “began to feel like myself again.”
The rhythm of this march-theme (a long note followed by a dotted rhythm) appears so frequently in his music that some commentators call it the “Schumann rhythm.”
The Symphony in C Major was the first major piece undertaken in this new way of working. It was actually Schumann’s fourth work in the genre, preceded by the “Spring,” the first version of the D minor Symphony, later to become his Fourth, and his “Sinfonietta,” (the Overture, Scherzo and Finale.)
The result is a quotation of the final song of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte (To the Immortal Beloved), where Beethoven sets the words “Take them then, these songs.”