If you’ve been around our blog for a while, in times past I’ve written a few songs, some lullabies, some hymns, etc., and many of the tunes were inspired by the names of or phrases I applied to our animals in some way.

And with the recent addition of our new cat Sophie, it didn’t take long before I was trying to think of something for her. And I did come up with a little phrase, which turned itself into a new hymn…

The initial lyric for her song was:

Sophie is a trophy

…mostly because “trophy” rhymes with “Sophie”. 🙂

(On an aside, she’s ended up being pretty prolific with the litter boxes, and with the wafting we usually know when she’s “gone”, so I thought a fitting lyric might be:

Sophie dropped a loafie

😀

At least it is in the litter. 🙂 )

But back to the story: After the initial little lyric, a melody started forming from the phrase, and I worked it out in full, and the chords on the piano.

And once that was in place, since I’m not any kind of poet lyricist, I looked for a hymn from the past with words that were 6-6-6-6 meter, which basically would fit with the new tune, and I did. It was written by John S. B. Monsell in 1866, called “I Hunger and I Thirst”. I liked the words and decided to go ahead with them, and then apply them to the tune I had written, with some small modifications to make them fit better.

And here’s the result:

I Hunger and Thirst

Here’s a PDF version:

I Hunger and Thirst (PDF)

And here’s a vocal version Sue graciously sang with me (she has such a pretty voice! 🙂 ):


I Hunger and Thirst – Vocal (MP3)

And the instrumental version:


I Hunger and Thirst – Instrumental (MP3)

We always pray God would glorify Himself through us in some way, and I pray He might do so with this new little hymn He granted I put together.

— David