The lover pasturing his flock among the lilies has an explicit sexual connotation, referring to love making, and, metaphorically, to the parallel creative process of seeking inspiration. In these verses the girl urges the virile lover to keep going until day breaks, in other words, all night long. The creative message seems to be the importance of persistence and patience, and the need to devote lengthy sessions to seeking inspiration.

Inspiration Can Be Elusive
Although you may have trapped your little foxes, and have taken control of your time, do not expect inspiration to mechanically occur each and every time you seek it, despite the fact that you have relaxed, and played, and done your best to establish the right conditions. Inspiration can sometimes be elusive, as is often the case with physical conception, which is why it is crucial to allocate serious stretches of time to each session.

Over and Over and Over and Over
The two songwriters of the immensely successful pop group Abba, so successful they outsold the Beatles, explained in a television interview that when they were composing they would sometimes sit strumming their guitars for several hours at a stretch — over, and over, and over, and over — and then repeat the process day by day, often for several months before a fragment of a magical new tune would arrive. That snippet would then be developed by simply repeating it over and over again, hoping each time that it would somehow be carried a few notes further, as it inevitably was. Their patient but persistent, gentle and relaxed working in harmony with the principles of the "Song" always paid off.

In a TV interview, Paul McCartney described how he and John Lennon, when starting out, met for 3-hour each afternnoon, sessions devoted to humming, strumming and composing -- resulting in over 300 songs.

Master Your Disinclination — Inspiration Will Come
The importance of this persistent approach is well understood by creative individuals, and in this regard, it is worth examining again the words of Tchaikovsky that we read earlier: "We must be patient and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination . . . I am glad I have not followed in the steps of some of my Russian colleagues, who have no self-confidence and are so impatient that at the least difficulty they are ready to throw up the sponge. This is why, in spite of great gifts, they accomplish so little, and that in an amateur way."

Patiently, Persistently, Playfully
Like the lover in the "Song", Tchaikovsky kept going, spending adequate time, patiently and persistently and playfully — not forcing himself to manufacture some kind of mechanical music, but simply playing until a magical inspiration arrived that could then be developed in the relaxed, passive manner already described.

Notice too how he speaks of other composers who had great technical mastery but who achieved very little of merit simply because they neglected this basic principle. As a result, their work was "amateurish", having been mechanically constructed by mental striving, rather than developed naturally from an initial inspiration.

Problem Solving
Such patient waiting on the creative mind is also important in obtaining insights in problem solving and design work. Biographer David Brewster says of the great genius Isaac Newton: “The habits of deep meditation . . . exercised their full influence over his mind . . . Absorbed in thought he would often sit down on his bedside after he rose, and remain there for hours without dressing himself, occupied with some interesting investigations which had fixed his attention . . . it was often necessary to remind him of his meals.”

Speaking of engineering genius Nikola Tesla, John O’Neill says: "Hotel employees have related that it was quite common to see Tesla standing transfixed in his room for hours at a time, so oblivious to his surroundings that they were able to work around his room with his being apparently unaware of their presence

Eighteenth century canal building genius James Brindly also devoted massive periods of patient time to solving problems and seeking insights, as we read in an Encyclopaedia Britannica article, quote: "The difficulties in the way were great, but all were surmounted by his genius . . . Brindley retained to the last a peculiar roughness of character and demeanor; but his innate power of thought more than compensated for his lack of training. It is told of him that when in any difficulty he used to retire to bed, and remain there [sometimes for several days] thinking out his problem until the solution became clear to him".