John Newton published “How tedious and tasteless the hours” in his book Olney Hymns. The hymn text features four verses written in 8s, double, an anapestic meter featuring eight lines of eight-syllable text. Each verse pairs a picture of gloomy resignation in the first four lines with a brighter picture of the joy that comes from beholding God’s presence in each verse’s second half. The better-known tune “Green Fields” (127) accommodates this hymn text’s full eight-line stanzas in an upbeat, major mode setting. In contrast, “Edgefield” adopts a minor melody to set just the gloomy first half of the hymn’s first verse, omitting its cheerier conclusion.