Rock Me To Sleep - By Elizabeth Akers Allen

Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight, make me a child again just for to-night!

Mother, come back from the echoless shore, take me again to your heart as of yore;

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;

Over my slumbers your loving watch keep; Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, oh, tide of the years I am so weary of toil and of tears.

Toil without recompense, tears all in vain, take them and give me my childhood again!

I have grown weary of dust and decay, weary of flinging my soul-wealth away,

Weary of sowing for others to reap; Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue, Mother, O Mother, my heart calls for you!

Many a summer the grass has grown green, blossomed and faded, our faces between:

Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain, long I to-night for your presence again.

Come from the silence so long and so deep; Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown, No love like mother--love ever has shone;

No other worship abides and endures, Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:

None like a mother can charm away pain, from the sick soul and the world-weary brain.

Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep; Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold, fall on your shoulders again as of old;

Let it drop over my forehead to-night, shading my faint eyes away from the light;

For with its sunny-edged shadows once more, Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;

Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep: Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear Mother, the years have been long since I last listened your lullaby song:

Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem, womanhood's years have been only a dream.

Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace, with your light lashes just sweeping my face,

Never hereafter to wake or to weep; Rock me to sleep, Mother--rock me to sleep!