The poem comprises three stanzas, each containing four rhyming couplets. It is a dramatic lyric that the hobbit Bilbo Baggins is supposed to have composed as he contemplated his approaching death - a nunc dimittis that could have been, but was not, incorporated into the final chapter of The Lord of the Rings. The context of Bilbo's making of the poem is that he, the hobbits Frodo and Sam and the elves Elrond and Galadriel have travelled to Mithlond, the Grey Havens, where they have been met by the elvish shipwright Círdan and the wizard Gandalf. Bilbo, Frodo, Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf are preparing to board the elven ship that will carry them magically away from the mortal world of Middle-earth to the Undying Lands beyond the sunset. Bilbo's verses acknowledge the ending of his day and the dimming of his eyes, bid farewell to the friends whom he will leave behind and look forward to the Lonely Star's guiding him to west of West, where night is quiet and sleep is rest.