This song came about from some chance occurrences. The first was at an event in college where a professor happened to read the poem, The Agony, by George Herbert (shown below). I hadn’t previously known of Herbert, but that poem subsequently became a favorite of mine. Next, years later, I was visiting with my cousin who mentioned she was writing a poem a day for several weeks. I was on the lookout for song material and had the idea to make her poetry into a song. From working with her poetry, I then got the idea to do the same thing with this George Herbert poem. 

In the beginning, this song came together quickly. I probably finished around 80% within a couple months (it helped having Herbert’s work to start with). Finishing the last 20% was the opposite experience though and took an additional few years (perhaps fitting to the poem’s title!). In particular, a few of the lyrics did not come together for some time.

In making this song, I didn’t want to be appropriating someone else’s work. However, since George Herbert lived 400 years ago and his poetry is in the public domain, I felt good considering this a collaboration across centuries.