The three dates for this song indicate the times that Charles Ives assigned three different verses to it. (These three versions are designated nos. Kz 2a, 2b, and 2c in John Kirkpatrick's catalog of Ives' work.)

When Ives compiled his set of 114 Songs around 1920, he included music from all phases of his activity as a composer, including this tune that he wrote when he was 14 or younger. Then is was a naïve attempt at a revival tune, and not such a bad one. He called it Hear my prayer, and it is a call for mercy, and a plea for God's help from a soul "oppress'd with guilt."

The second set of verses, written when Ives was 18, are a love song. It begins "When the waves softly sign," and ends, "I think of thee! While the silver moon is gleaming, of thee I'm dreaming."

Finally, in 1898, when graduation from Yale University approached, Ives turned it into an alma mater, again in pretty ordinary terms. Since the original song had served triple duty with three very different sentiments, Ives named it A Song for Anything.

Publishing it in 114 Songs he included all three different verses, and marked the piano part "con espressione (per verse)" which can be read as "with expression according to the verse."

As a fledgling composer Ives already was attempting to liberate his bass line by giving it a rhythm distinct from the rest of the piano part, but was not yet assured enough to do much besides place its notes on the root of the harmony. The right hand is a conventional chord figuration.

Ives included such juvenilia and student works in 114 Songs because of a decision to let it represent all phases of his development. (He had good grounds to believe he would soon be dead, and most likely intended the volume as his main legacy.) But his disarmed criticism of several songs by grouping them as eight songs called "Sentimental Ballads," and he further defused criticism by writing the following note:

"The song above is a common illustration (and not the only one in this book) of how inferior music is inclined to follow inferior words and 'vice-versa.' The music was originally written to the sacred words printed last (and the best of the three). Some thirty years ago it was sung in a country church and even as a response after the prayer. The congregation not only tolerated it, but accepted it apparently with satisfaction. That music of this character is less frequently heard in religious services now-a-days is one of the signs of the wholesome progress of music in this country." An "Amen" was tacked on to the end of this song; a relative of the composer remarked, at the time, that it was about as appropriate to this kind of tune as a benediction would be after an exhibition of the "Circassian Beauty" at the Danbury Fair.

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