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Rock Me to Sleep

  • Author: Akers, Elizabeth
  • Editor: B-7413
  • Newspaper: The Umpire volume 6
  • Page Number:
  • Date: 1 3 1917
  • Tags:
  • poetry
  • mothers

Rock Me to Sleep By Elizabeth Akers n Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight Make me a child again just for tonight! Mother, come back from that echoless shore Take me again to your heart as of yore; Kiss from my forehead the furrow 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! t 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. m 1 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 tonight 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 shown; 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 world-weary brain. Slumbers 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 tonight, Shading my faint eyes away from the light; For with its sunny-P.dged shadows once more Happily 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 d long Since I last listened to your lullaby song: Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem a The swift-fleeting 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! Printed by special request.