Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight,

Make me a child again just for tonight

Mother come back from the echoless shore,

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;

Back 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

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 tonight,

Shading my faint eyes away from the light ;

For with it's 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.

Clasp 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!

---Florence Percy

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