Rock Me to Sleep, Mother

From Susan Hopkins' music collection:  "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother", poetry by Florence Percy and music by Ernest Leslie.  It was published in 1861.

This version, recorded in 2012 by Cathie Ryan, is lovely.  The tune is her own:

The Bexley High School Women's Glee Club, recorded in 2009, also lovely:

Rock Me to Sleep

Backward, turn backward, Oh Time, in thy 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.

Chorus:

Clasp'd to your heart in a loving embrace,

With your light lashes just sweeping me face,

Never hereafter to wake or to weep;

Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep.

Backward, turn backward, Oh tide of 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, Oh 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 to 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 a mother's 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 calm 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

Happy 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 to your lullaby song;

Sing, then, and unto my heart it shall seem

Womanhood's years have been only a dream;

Clasped to your heard 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.