All Through the Night
(Ar Hyd Y Nos)
Version 2
Music File
Barry Taylor

Information
Lyrics
The ancient Welsh folk song, Ar Hyd y Nos. It was first published under that name by Bardd y Brenin (Edward Jones) in Musical Relicks of the Welsh Bards(1784).* The first English lyrics were possibly written by Amelia Opie and was sung to an English setting, "Here beneath a willow weepeth poor Mary Ann." Those lyrics were eventually replaced by Harold Boulton's now familiar lyrics.

There is another set of lyrics at All Through the Night (1)

Sleep my love, and peace attend thee
All through the night;
Guardian angels God will lend thee,
All through the night,
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping,
All through the night.

Angels watching ever round thee,
All through the night,
In thy slumbers close surround thee,
All through the night,
They should of all fears disarm thee,
No forebodings should alarm thee,
They will let no peril harm thee,
All through the night.
Lyrics in Welsh
From
Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
See Bibliography for full information.
*From a Digital Tradition forum thread on the history of children's songs, citing Canu'r Bobl by Huw Williams.