"A Perfect Day" was one of Carrie Jacobs-Bond's most popular songs. She wrote the lyrics in 1909. She describes the story in her autobiography "The Roads of Melody," published in 1927:

"The story of the writing of 'The End of a Perfect Day' has been told many, many times, and in many, many ways, but the truth is a very simple story. The inspiration came to me as I was viewing a wonderful sunset from the top of Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside, California, this glorious place that has been made famous by the Easter morning sunrise services, inaugurated by Frank Miller, Master of the Mission Inn. I had been motoring through Southern California with some nature-loving friends; we had been seeing many beautiful sights, but the glory of this sunset from the mountain was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

"I hurried back to the Mission Inn to get ready for dinner, and while dressing I thought how I wished I could express my thanks to those friends in some little way, just out of the ordinary; and almost at once came the words for 'A Perfect Day.' I wrote them very hurriedly; I did not have time to change a word or a sentence. I took them down and read them at the dinner that evening, then put them in my purse and thereupon forgot them.

About three months later I was crossing the Mohave Desert, in the moonlight, with some more nature-loving friends; and without realizing that I had memorized those words, I began singing them to the original tune. My friend, Mrs. Hawks, who sat next to me...said, 'Carrie, you have another song, haven't you' 'Well,' I replied, 'maybe I have.' I stayed at her home that night, but did not go to sleep. I finished the song entirely before morning."

(Carrie Jacobs-Bond, The Roads of Melody, pp. 156-158)

--Christie Finn

Text

A Perfect Day
by Carrie Jacobs-Bond

When you come to the end of a perfect day,
And you sit alone with your thought,
While the chimes ring out with a carol gay
For the joy that the day has brought,
Do you think what the end of a perfect day
Can mean to a tired heart,
When the sun goes down with a flaming ray,
And the dear friends have to part?

Well, this is the end of a perfect day,
Near the end of a journey, too;
But it leaves a thought that is big and strong,
With a wish that is kind and true.
For mem’ry has painted this perfect day
With colors that never fade,
And we find at the end of a perfect day
The soul of a friend we’ve made.