Rock Me to Sleep

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!

In “Rock Me to Sleep” by Elizabeth Akers Allen, the speaker expresses her desire to go back in time and be in her mother’s loving arms again. My dear Mama, I chose to include this poem for you because of how perfectly it exemplifies the love you show me. As soon as I read the lines “None like a mother can charm away pain”  “From the sick soul and the world-weary brain”, I knew I had to include it. You are truly the only person who can comfort me when I feel at my worst, and those words explain exactly how I feel. As the speakers mother, your love is “faithful, unselfish, and patient”; it builds me up and catches me when I fall. I want you to know that I cherish your love, more than I think you know.

The speaker calls upon time as if it was a person, asking it to turn backwards in its flight and return to her childhood. She longs for her mother to kiss away the “furrows of care” on her brow and smooth a few “silver threads” of hair, which suggest to us that she’s been alive long enough to experience considerable pain. Looking at Allen’s biography, she definitely went through some tough situations. She went through a divorce, remarried, and then lost her husband. This poem was published around the time that the Civil War started, so she was probably witnessing the strife that came along with it. She says she has grown tired of all the trials of life and wishes to return to a simpler time.

Remembering how her mother would rock her to sleep, the speaker paints us a picture of her childhood. She recalls her mother’s “brown hair, just lighted with gold” falling about her shoulders and dropping over her forehead, shading her eyes from the light. I remember being little enough for you to rock me to sleep, holding me close and singing to me. The lullaby I remember most vividly is “The Riddle Song”, which I still remember all the words to. “I gave my love a cherry that had no stone…” 

The lines “Mother, come back from the echoless shore” and “Long I tonight for your presence again” tells us that the speakers mother has passed away. She makes it clear how much she misses her mother, wishing for her with “strong yearning and passionate pain”. At the end of every stanza, “Rock me to sleep, mother, - rock me to sleep!” is repeated. This reiterates her desire to be in her mother’s arms again.

Who knows what the purpose of this poem was? An outlet of her pain, of course, but maybe Allen wanted readers to realize we shouldn’t take our mothers love for granted. One day, she won’t be there anymore, and all we'll have is memories. 

As I read this poem, I was brought to tears a few times, imagining the pain of one day being without you. I know that I will long for you often. I just wanted you to know now how much you mean to me. You will always have a very special place in my heart, no matter where we go or how old I grow. I love you so very much.