Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight; br Make me a child again, just for tonight! br Mother, come back from that echoless shore; br Take me again in your heart as of yore -- br Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, br Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair, br Over my slumbers your loving watch keep -- br Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep! br br Backward, turn backward, O tide of the years! br I am so weary of toil and of tears -- br Toil without recompense, tears all in vain -- br br Take them and give me my childhood again! br I have grown weary of dust and decay -- br Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away -- br Weary of sowing for others to reap -- br Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep! br br Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue, br Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you! br Many a summer the grass has grown green, br Blossomed and faded -- our faces between -- br Yet with strong yearning and passionate pain, br Long I tonight for your presence again; br Come from the silence, mother -- rock me to sleep! br br Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold, br Fall on your shoulders again as of old -- br Let it drop over my forehead tonight, br Shading my faint eyes away from the light! br For, with its sunny-edged shadows once more, br Haply will throng all the visions of yore; br Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep -- br Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep! br br Mother, dear mother! the years have been long br Since I last listened to your lullaby song; br Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem br Womanhood's years have been only a dream; br With your light lashes just sweeping my face, br Never hereafter to wake or to weep -- br Rock me sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep!br br Elizabeth Akers Allenbr br