The anthem's text memorializes the celebration of the
Eucharist. Finzi assembled the text from two poems of
Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649), an English
poet of the
Metaphysical tradition of
John Donne and
Thomas Traherne. These two poems, Crashaw's "Adoro Te" and "Lauda Sion Salvatorem", themselves constitute poetic translations of
Latinhymns by St
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274). Finzi did not set the entirety of both poems; he instead excerpted and re-ordered selected stanzas from Crashaw's original to create a composite text for the work.
The music of the piece adheres to a conservative tonal idiom, albeit one that
modulates frequently. The highly sectionalized form follows the stanza divisions of the text, featuring episodes of
homophonic textures as well as short stretches of
polyphony. The text is set in a syllabic style, except for the
melismaticAmen that closes the piece.