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Rock Me to Sleep
by Elizabeth (Akers) Allen
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
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!
