Rock Me to Sleep, Mother

Backward, turn backward, 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 like before
 Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care
 Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair
 Over my slumber your loving watch keep,
 Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep
 Backward, flow backward, 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;
 For 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
 Mother, oh mother, my heart calls for you
 Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue
 Manys a summer the grass has grown green
 Blossomed and faded, our faces between
 Backward, oh backward, Time in your flight
 Make me a child again, just for tonight.
 Come from the silence so long and so deep,
 Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep
 Rock me to sleep