When I was around 18 years old, I came upon a piece of paper with my handwriting on it. It was a poem, “She walks in beauty, like the night; Of cloudless climes and starry skies…” I was shocked. Had I written that?! It couldn’t be, because I’ve always had a pretty good idea of just how good I am at whatever I do. And I was not capable of writing something that beautiful.

I soon realized that I had written it down as part of an exercise in a music theory class where I had to write music to a poem. And clearly, I had picked Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty.” I’m sure it has been set to music dozens if not hundreds of times. I was pleased to find that Jesse Ferguson had done the same thing on his 2014 album, The Butcher Boy. It’s as beautiful as the poem itself: