Now I Lay me down to Sleep

Most of us likely taught our children to pray a bedtime prayer we learned when we were children.

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake.

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

The other day when I wrote on “The Frailty of Life” I came across the familiar prayer Bartletts Familiar Quotations. The first record of the prayer dates back at least to 1160 in the Enchiridion Leonis. The more familiar version of the prayer poem was written by William Walsh (1663-1708) and printed in the second impression of the New England Primer of 1691. The prayer comes at the end of a longer poem which does deal with frailty of life and the reason why.

In Adam’s fall

We sinned all.

My book and heart

Must never part.

Young Obadias,

David, Josias-

All were pious.

Peter denied

His Lord and cried.

Young Timothy

Learnt sin to fly.

Xerxes did die,

And so must I.

Zaccheus he

Did climb the tree

Our Lord to see.

Our days begin with trouble here,

Our life is but a span,

And cruel death is always near,

So frail a thing is man.

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

William Walsh lived in England his entire life. He was a poet and literary critic. He was also an MP.