ROCK ME TO SLEEPBy Elizabeth Akers AllenBACKWARD, 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, O 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 painFrom 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 moreHaply 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 longSince I last listened your lullaby song:Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seemWomanhood’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!

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