The importance of Herbert’s musico-poetic activities for an understanding of his devotional verse is summarised, transforming our reading of his verse and challenging us to think beyond a silent encounter with the written page. At the heart of Herbert’s music lies the tension of paradox: between abstract ideal and the imperfect reality of the world; between simple expression and more elaborate, ornamented modes; between the evanescent temporality of earthly existence and the eternity of God’s time. In conclusion, the Epilogue turns to the work of Herbert’s twentieth-century reader Simone Weil, who like Herbert recognises the paradoxical tension of music, what she calls ‘Harmony in the Pythagorean sense; the just balance of contraries’.