Rock Me To Sleep
Backward, turn backward,
oh time in your flight,
Make me a child again,
just for tonight!
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, oh 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 tonight for your
presence again,
Come from the silence
so long and so deep - -
Rock me to sleep, Mother
- - rock me to sleep!
- - Elizabeth
Akers Allen
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