As is the case with may of Purcell's songs, the author of the text of "Not all my torments can your pity move" is unknown. It is, however, very moving, for the narrator cannot help but love someone, even thought that love is answered only with scorn. It is typical of the non-Puritanical, post-Restoration songs by Purcell.

"Not all my torments" opens as if it is a ground-bass aria. The same, slow bass movement and chord progression occur twice in the first half of the song, the first time at the tonic level, the second time at the dominant. This entire section is dedicated to the first line and its repetition. Once the second line of the poem, "Your scorn increases with my love," begins, Purcell abandons the bass pattern and moves away from C minor to different harmonies. Much of the second half of the song hovers around the relative major (E flat), as the narrator tells of carrying his sorrows to the grave. Only in the final measures do we hear a decisive return to C minor. With the voice participating from the first measure to the last, there is no room for the continuo player to create a prelude or postlude.

Throughout "Not all my torments," the slow harmonic changes allow extended melismas, especially when a chord sustains for an entire measure, such as at the words, "torment," "pity," and "increases." The melismas on "pity" are especially difficult, consisting of dotted, leaping figures. Also, the flourishes contain striking alterations that create rising chromatic lines. It is an excellent example of English Baroque lyric monody.

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