Page:Famous Single Poems (1924).djvu/257

 Backward, 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!