The speaker is a Christian. The tone he adopts is a humble one; he does not remonstrate with God or try to make demands on him; he acknowledges that humans have brought their troubles upon themselves, but nonetheless he appeals for God’s support, through Christ, for a better kind of life.

The first five lines of the poem refer to the Christian doctrine of the Fall. The first line looks back to the creation of humans by God, as recounted in the biblical story of creation in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. The poet, speaking directly to God, acknowledges in Line 1 that God created humans “in wealth and store,” that is, they were created in the image of God in the Garden of Eden (according to Genesis) and had everything they needed. In Genesis Chapter 1, God says to men and women that the earth is for their use; they are to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (verse 28, Revised Standard Version). They were also well provided with food (verse 30).

In Genesis, Chapter 2, God plants the Garden of Eden, in which the first humans, Adam and Eve, are to live.