The Eve.

For many years I have quoted this poem. Here and other places. Humor me this one time. Just this once I will copy it in it's entirety. I am sorely missing Mom right now and I need to wallow for just a minute. And so. Shalom. Merry Christmas and may the love of Christ enter your heart and remain there.

Rock Me to Sleep

BY ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN

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, 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 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 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-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. 

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!

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