All Through the Night: A Painting and Welsh Winter/Christmas Song

1st Verse

Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee

All through the night;

Guardian angels God will send thee

All through the night.

Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,

Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,

I my loving vigil keeping,

All through the night.

2nd Verse

While the moon her watch is keeping

All through the night;

While the weary world is sleeping

All through the night.

Over thy spirit gently stealing,

Visions of delight revealing,

Breathes a pure and holy feeling,

All through the night.

3rd Verse

Deep the silence round us spreading,

All through the night;

Dark the path that we are treading,

All through the night.

Still the coming day discerning,

By the hope within us burning,

To the dawn our footsteps turning,

All through the night.

4th Verse

Star of Faith the dark adorning,

All through the night;

Leads us fearless toward the morning,

All through the night.

Though our hearts be wrapped in sorrow,

From the home of dawn we borrow,

Promise of a glad tomorrow,

All through the night.

“All Through the Night” is originally a Welsh language song. It was called in Welsh, “Ar Hyd y Nos”. This song has been translated into many languages and the English versions were done by Harold Bouton, Thomas Oliphant in 1862.

I hope you enjoyed the poetic lyrics of this special song.

You can hear it sung on YouTube, here. This link is to the song as performed on A Prairie Home Companion and the performers reference the same movie that introduced the song to me and my family. It’s our most watched holiday movie for sure. We put it on loop every November, December and on into January. Here’s a link to it! Look for Denholm Eliott, that’s the version to watch and it’s the one I linked here.