Now the Day Is Over

Sabine Baring-Gould wrote this for the children of his parish, and he wrote it to be short. The lines are deliberately brief, four to six syllables each, so that small children could manage a whole verse in one breath. It has been a standard evening hymn in English schools and churches ever since.

Origins

Baring-Gould published the words in 1865. He was a remarkably productive man: a Devon parson, a novelist, an antiquarian, and one of the more important collectors of English folk song. His Songs of the West (1890) preserved West Country material that would otherwise have been lost, including the version of Widecombe Fair that everyone now sings.

The same year he wrote this hymn he also wrote "Onward, Christian Soldiers", which is about as different in mood as two hymns by one author can be. The tune usually sung with Now the Day Is Over is "Merrial", adapted by Joseph Barnby.

Baring-Gould said the hymn was suggested to him by a verse in the Book of Proverbs about lying down and sleeping without fear.

Meaning & Interpretation

The hymn follows the sun going down and then widens out from the singer to other people. After asking rest for the weary and bright dreams for children, it turns to sailors at sea, who cannot go to bed at all.

That outward turn is the substance of the poem. A child says the words at the safest moment of the day, in bed, and is asked to think about people who are not safe. The last verse closes the circle by looking past the night to waking up again.

Who wrote Now the Day Is Over?

Sabine Baring-Gould, an English clergyman based in Devon, wrote the words in 1865. He was also a novelist and a folk-song collector whose Songs of the West (1890) rescued a great deal of West Country traditional music.

Why does the hymn mention sailors?

It moves outward from the child's own bedroom to people who are awake and at risk while everyone else sleeps. Baring-Gould was writing in a country where a large share of families had someone at sea, so sailors tossing on the deep were a real and immediate worry rather than a poetic image.

Is this the same author as Onward Christian Soldiers?

Yes. Baring-Gould wrote both in 1865. One is a marching hymn and the other is a quiet lullaby, which gives some idea of his range. He wrote across an unusually wide field, publishing fiction, folklore, and theology alongside his hymns.