Charles Ives wrote a number of extremely—even humorously—short pieces. These are scarcely more than memos of a musical idea. Sometimes he set them to a short text, often of his own authorship. He included several such pieces in his collection of 114 Songs, a self-financed volume that appeared in 1922.

This eight-measure song is an epigraph in music. Even and tonal (or modal) chords at the beginning get a little more complex by the end of the sixth measure. Then the piece recedes into the peaceful C major of the start, though ending on a dissonant seventh chord. The text in essence cautions one to stay alert, for "Who can tell where Truth may appear...?"

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