Ireland composed the melody over lunch one day at the suggestion of organist and fellow-composer Geoffrey Shaw.

[2] Samuel Crossman was a Puritan minister who had taken part in the Savoy Conference but was ejected from the Church of England due to his opposition to the Act of Uniformity 1662.

[4] The Reverend Percy Dearmer stated that "My Song Is Love Unknown" "... illustrates the fact that 17th-century Britain was free from the unwholesome treatment of the Passion which is shown, for instance, in the Spanish sculpture of that age".

[4] The fourth verse asked what Jesus had done to deserve the crucifixion with the ironic answer being that he had healed the sick.

In life no house, no home my Lord on earth might have; in death no friendly tomb but what a stranger gave.

Here might I stay and sing: no story so divine; never was love, dear King, never was grief like Thine!

[5] The British band Coldplay's song "A Message" on their 2005 album X&Y, is lyrically and musically derived from the hymn.