Britten did not set all lines of the poem, but Peter Porter in The Britten Companion writes that the passages he selected are "more than well chosen", amounting to a "biopsy" of the entire work. In an analysis of Rejoice in the Lamb, Hilary Seraph Donaldson writes that Britten – who at the time of writing the piece was in a taboo same-sex relationship – may have empathised with Smart, who was also a misunderstood outcast.
Britten did not set all lines of the poem, but Peter Porter in The Britten Companion notes that the passages he selected are "more than well picked", amounting to a "biopsy" of the entire work. In an analysis of Rejoice in the Lamb, Hilary Seraph Donaldson writes that Britten – who at the time of writing the piece was in a taboo same-sex relationship – may have empathized with Smart, who was also a misunderstood outcast.