LXXI.—ROCK ME TO SLEEP.

Elizabeth Akers Allen.

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.