BACKWARD, turn backward, O 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, 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 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 over 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 vision of yore;
Lovingly, softly, it's bright billows sweep:
Rock me to sleep, Mother-rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear Mother, the years been long
Since I last listened to 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!

By Elizabeth Akers Allen
Illustration By Mary Cassat